Predoctoral Research Fellow

Bergeron is recruiting a Pre-Doctoral Fellow based at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. The full-time position will begin August 1, 2024, and last for at least one year, ideally two. The position will entail close collaboration with all stages of the research process on projects in development economics, political economy, and public economics, including helping with the implementation and data analysis of field experiments conducted in partnership with the Provincial Government of Kasai-Central in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

Project Description 

The Pre-Doctoral Fellow will work on several projects, including, but not limited to the following topics:

• The interaction between legal and fiscal capacity in weak state settings.
• An RCT in collaboration with the provincial justice ministry, a Congolese NGO, and the provincial tax ministry that seeks to examine how increasing access to justice moderated by state and non-state actors shapes crime, property rights security, and the tax-based social contract between citizens and the state.
• The effects of progressive taxation on compliance, revenues, and the social contract.
• An RCT in collaboration with the provincial tax ministry that examines how the progressivity of the property tax system shapes tax revenue through two key mechanisms: (a) a tighter correspondence between liability and ability to pay, and (b) higher compliance due to improved perceptions of the fairness of the tax system.
• The effect of improving the assignment of tax collectors on tax revenue.
• An RCT in collaboration with the provincial tax ministry that examines how different tax collectors’ assignments to teammates and postings shape tax revenue. The assignment will compare (a) an `optimal’ assignment (positive assortative matching following Bergeron et al., 2022), (b) a `choice’ assignment that lets collectors choose their teammates and postings and grant them their choice using a performance-ranked serial dictatorship mechanism, (c) a random assignment of collectors to teammates and postings. 

The Pre-Doctoral Fellow will work extensively with Augustin Bergeron but might also occasionally work in close collaboration with his co-authors on these and other research projects, such as Nathan Nunn (Professor of Economics, University of British Columbia), James Robinson (Professor of Economics, University of Chicago), Gabriel Tourek (Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Pittsburgh), Jonathan Weigel (Assistant Professor of Economics, University of California Berkeley), and other collaborators. 

Qualifications and Skills

Successful candidates have come from a variety of backgrounds (including from undergraduate and graduate programs, and other research assistant positions), and have a range of skill levels and experience with coding. Applications are especially encouraged from backgrounds under-represented in economics. 

The ideal candidate will:

• have completed a bachelor or a master’s degree in economics, mathematics, or computer science;
• have a strong interest in development economics, political economy, and economic history;
• have a strong command of randomized evaluations and related econometrics methods;
• have a strong quantitative background, with strong programming skills in Stata and/or R;
• be able to work independently and in teams to solve problems;have strong written communication skills;
• be interested in pursuing a PhD in Economics or a related field. 

Salary will be competitive.