Research Associate- Targeted and Flexible Microcredit

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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/Responsibilities

This is a very high ownership role, where your work will majorly involve supporting other RAs in project management in addition to cleaning, organizing and analysing the data collected from the field on a regular basis.

Research Associates work closely with academic researchers and other field staff to perform a variety of tasks including, but not limited to:

Research Design and Data Management

• Designing survey questionnaires, conducting qualitative research, running pilot/backchecking exercises, refining study design and survey instruments
• Ensuring that the project complies with research protocols related to data collection and security
• Supervising data collection and data entry to ensure good data quality
• Work with data sets, prepare and run codes regularly for daily data cleaning and analysis in STATA
• Take ownership of daily data management trackers to ensure seamless flow of information for operational efficiency
• Ability to analyze and interpret data using statistical packages like STATA and produce output, including graphs and table.

Managerial / Operational

• Maintaining relationship with partner organizations at both headquarters and field levels
• Managing 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
• Overseeing the on-ground implementation of the evaluation in accordance with the research design in association with our partner organization. Further, making sure the project is on track in terms of timelines.
• Liaising with field staff running evaluations and collaborating with them including occasional travel to research field sites; focus of work is to advise on quality control of data collection practices.

Communication

• Assisting in preparation of documents and presentations with graphs and tables for partner organization, donor reporting as well as dissemination activities
• Daily meetings with PIs to share project progress updates
• Any other task as assigned by the PIs

Education Qualification/Required Skills & Experience

• A Bachelor's/Master’s degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, education or related fields
• Proficiency in STATA or other statistical packages (non-negotiable)
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations
• Have an entrepreneurial/start-up mindset: Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments. Are action oriented, self-driven and flexible
• Attentive to detail, analytical, and can work across multiple-task efficiently as required
• Team oriented: Are a reliable team player and can work with a diverse set of people on a daily basis
• Ability to work independently and in rural field locations (travel to nearby field sites as required)
• Willing to move to Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Desired Qualifications

• Working proficiency in Tamil (strongly preferred)
• Familiarity with randomized controlled trials/clinical trials/quasi-experiments and development research preferred
• Understanding of basic financial terms
• Experience working with rural enterprises

For more information please check the Link

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