Research Associate - Peer Networks Project - JPAL South Asia

Start Date (Earliest): ASAP

Length of Commitment: 6 months required (12 months possible)

Joining Location: Vadodara, Gujarat

Name of the Project: Peer Networks, Information Diffusion, and Women’s Health

Sector: Gender, Social Networks, Health

About the Organization

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of 194 affiliated professors at universities worldwide, J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL South Asia, based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in India, leads J-PAL’s work in the South Asia region. J-PAL South Asia conducts randomized evaluations, builds partnerships for evidence-informed policymaking, and helps partners scale up effective programs. Over more than ten years of existence, J-PAL South Asia has conducted 193 ongoing and completed randomized evaluations.

 About the Position

J-PAL South Asia at the Institute for Financial Management and Research seeks qualified applicants for the position of Research Associate (RA) to lead impact evaluations in India. The position offers an opportunity to gain first-hand field management experience in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research. The RA will join a team of world-class researchers from leading universities in the world and will gain first-hand experience implementing randomized control trials (RCTs). Read more about our work and projects here.

Project details

Women in India have sparse peer networks leading to under-informed decision making, and potentially, loneliness. We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to measure the impact of increasing the peer connections of young married women in India. We found promising short-term effects of our intervention. Women who were invited to our facilitated women’s social groups report having more friends and acquaintances, more peers they could turn to for psychosocial and economic support, and more peers they can rely on for advice on sensitive matters such as birth control. In this follow-up study, we will examine if the short-term effects diminish, sustain, or amplify in the long term. Further, having created randomized variation in the women’s peer networks, we will study whether more dense peer networks diffuse health-related information more widely and/or more accurately and how the diffusion patterns differ by whether the peer network is seeded with accurate information or not.

The Principal Investigators (PI) are Laura Schechter (University of Wisconsin—Madison) and Srinivasan Vasudevan (University of Chicago). The RA will work closely with the PIs who will guide and supervise them in their various tasks. The Research Manager (RM) will coordinate JPAL’s organization support to the RA.

Key Responsibilities

• Hiring a project associate to assist in the execution of the study.
• Piloting the follow-up survey questionnaire and ensuring that the translation to Gujarati is accurate.
• Hire a qualified team of of surveyors (which will administer the surveys) and backcheckers (who will monitor data quality.)
• Train the field staff to administer the survey and collect high-quality data.
• Keep the PIs frequently updated on progress and reporting any issues encountered in data collection or fieldwork management.
• Ensure that the project complies with IRB, JPAL data collection and security protocols.
• Assisting with data cleaning and preliminary data analysis.
• Help design and implement a short RCT involving the dissemination of information.
• Any other task as assigned by the RM, the Associate Director-Research, or the Executive Director.

Desired Qualifications

• A bachelor’s/master’s degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, education or related fields.
• Previous experience in data collection in the field required.
• Fluency and excellent communication skills in English and Hindi required.
• Fluency in Gujarati is highly preferred but not required.
• Familiarity with randomized controlled trials (RCTs) preferred.
• Knowledge of Stata or other data analysis software is strongly preferred.
• Ability to work independently and manage a team of field staff effectively.
• Must have work authorization to work in India.