Research Associate – Emissions Trading Scheme – J-PAL South Asia

Organization: J-PAL South Asia at IFMR

Project Title: Emissions Trading Scheme

Country: India

Location: Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Start Date: ASAP

Length of Commitment: 18 months

Education: Bachelors/Master’s in Economics, Environmental Economics, Engineering or related fields

Company Description:

J-PAL is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. The Research team at J-PAL South Asia at the Institute of Financial management and Research (IFMR) forges relationships with implementers on the ground, designs randomized evaluations and survey instruments, carries out data collection, statistical analysis and data publishing and provides evidence to answer key questions on social policy and social development.

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) seeks qualified applicants for position as Research Associate for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change sector. J-PAL’s Environment, Energy, & Climate Change sector measures the real-world impacts of energy and environmental policies, particularly on energy access, pollution reduction, and climate change mitigation and resilience.

Project Description:

The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) project is a collaborative exercise between the Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, J-PAL South Asia at IFMR and Energy Policy Institute of Chicago (EPIC) to implement and evaluate a market-based mechanism for Particulate Matter in India. The position offers an opportunity to gain first-hand research experience, including field operations and interaction with Centre and State officials, in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research.

This research team is headed by Prof. Michael Greenstone (University of Chicago), Prof. Rohini Pande (Yale University), Dr. Nicholas Ryan (Yale University), and Dr. Anant Sudarshan (University of Warwick).

Roles and 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 Ahmedabad cluster in accordance to the market research design, in association with our Government/Partner organization.
• Maintaining relationships with Government/Partner organizations at both Head Office and Regional Office levels
• Supervising data collection and data entry by the Field team to ensure good data quality during both these phases.
• Periodically monitoring and analyzing the Market Data and understanding the trading behavior of participating industries under the project. 
•  Designing survey questionnaires, conducting qualitative research, running pilot exercise, refining study design and 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.
• Assisting with data cleaning, preliminary data analysis, and preparation of documents and presentations for dissemination.
• Conducting Workshops and Seminars for participant industries, vendor organizations and relevant stakeholders as and when required.
• Regular reporting to PIs and supervisor on all the above-mentioned activities.

Desired Qualifications and Experience:

Required:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Economics (or related field) or Engineering
• At least 1 year of work experience
• 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 Hindi and English and strong communication skills are required.
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player
• Willingness to live in Ahmedabad and travel extensively to study areas.
•  Intermediate or advanced knowledge of STATA or other data analysis tool

Desired:

• Master’s degree in economics, environmental economics, engineering or related disciplines is preferred
• Work experience in environmental sciences/ engineering will be an advantage
• Proficiency in STATA (or other tools such as R, SPSS etc.) is desired.
• Conversational-level skills in Gujarati language is desired.
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations
• Familiarity with randomized controlled trials/clinical trials/quasi-experiments preferred
• Experience living in a developing country and/or liaising with government officials is a strongly desired but not necessary
• High level of attention to detail

Note on Work Authorizations:

Candidates must have work authorization to work in India. This covers citizens of India, Nepal or Bhutan, Persons of Indian origin (PIO), and an Overseas Citizens of India (OCI).