Research Associate - Smart Metering Evaluation - J-PAL South Asia

Research Associate – Smart Metering Evaluation, Assam

Project Title: Smart Metering Evaluation

Country: India

Education: Bachelor’s in Economics/Engineering

Organization: J-PAL South Asia at IFMR

Company Description:

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) seeks qualified applicants for positions as Research Associates for projects on agriculture, education, environment, finance, health, labor, and governance in locations around the world. The projects study a variety of topics within the previously listed fields. The positions offer an opportunity to gain first-hand field management experience in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research. These positions are located primarily in developing countries around the world and the principal investigators are J-PAL affiliated professors.

Project 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 neighborhood level randomized-control trial to answer this question in a critical developing country setting, working jointly on implementation with state distribution utility of Assam Power Distribution Company Limited.

Research Associate 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 evaluation in accordance to the research design, in association with our partner organization APDCL.
• 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.

Desired Qualifications and 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 Assam and travel extensively within the region
• 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

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).