Research Associate Position – Smart Metering Evaluation

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About the Organization

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) was established in 2003 as a research center at the Economics Department at MIT. Since then, it has grown into a global network of researchers who use randomized evaluations to answer critical policy questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL is propelled by a first-rate team dedicated to research, policy, training, and other vital work, supporting J-PAL's mission to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. J-PAL South Asia, which is based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in India, analyses and disseminates research results and builds partnerships with policymakers to ensure that policy is driven by evidence, and that programs proven effective are scaled up

Job Description

Almost a billion people in developing countries are not connected to the electricity grid. Those with power are still subject to unreliable supply and frequent outages. One cause is a widespread inability of utilities to collect on payments, forcing them to ration supply. This project will evaluate the use of new technology of smart meters to break this cycle of low-payments and low-quality that in turn causes consumers to feel justified in making incomplete payments. Smart metering and pre-payment specifically have several beneficial features, such as lowering transactions and monitoring costs and perhaps reducing liquidity constraints. There is also a growing literature on the consumer response to real-time pricing, which smart metering enables.  However, there are no credible evaluations on the crucial point—can a technological intervention change norm, incentives, and payment, and thereby improve reliability and access, even in a high-theft environment?

While there have been great strides in smart metering, it is not clear that metering alone can reduce theft if the fundamental problem is collusion between collection agents and utility customers, at the expense of power suppliers. Our study (PIs: Prof. Michael Greenstone, Prof. Robin Burgess, Prof. Nicholas Ryan and Prof. Anant Sudarshan) would conduct a large-scale neighbourhood level randomized-control trial to answer this question in a critical developing country setting, working jointly on implementation with state distribution utility of North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (NBPDCL) and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL).

Job Responsibilities

The RA will work closely with academic researchers and other field staff to perform a variety tasks including, but not limited to:

• Overseeing implementation of the evaluation in accordance to the research design, in association with our partner organizations NBPDCL and SBPDCL
• Designing survey questionnaires, conducting qualitative research, conducting quantitative analysis of real time incoming consumer billing data and refining surveying instruments.
• Managing field teams: Recruit, train, and supervise both field-based and data operations teams consisting of project assistants, field managers, field-based surveyors, data entry operators and other field and office staff.
• Supervising data collection and ensuring data quality and productivity.
• Maintaining relationships with partner organizations at both headquarters and field levels
• Assisting with data cleaning, preliminary data analysis, and preparation of documents and presentations for dissemination.
• Reporting to PIs on all of the above-mentioned activities.

Education Qualification/Required Skills & Experience

Required:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Economics (or related field) or Engineering
• At least 1 year of work experience is necessary
• Prior experience working with government partners is desired but not necessary
• Prior experience with field data collection is desired but not necessary
• Familiarity with impact evaluations and randomized controlled trials is required
• Excellent management and organizational skills along with strong quantitative skills
• Fluency in English and strong communication skills are required. Spoken fluency in Assamese is desirable.
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player
• Willingness to live in Patna, Bihar.
• Intermediate knowledge of STATA or other data analysis tools
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations

Desired:

• Master’s degree in economics, engineering or related disciplines is preferred
• Experience living in a developing country and/or liaising with government officials is a strongly desired but not necessary
• Proficiency in STATA (or other tools such as R, SPSS etc.) is desired

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