Position: Research Associate
Project: Direct Benefit Transfers for Electricity
Country: India
Location: Andhra Pradesh
Education: Bachelor’s/Master’s in economics, engineering, social sciences, public policy, or related fields
Organization: J-PAL South Asia at IFMR
Language requirement: English and Telegu
J-PAL South Asia at the Institute for Financial Management and Research seeks a qualified applicant for the position of Research Associate 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 Research Associate will join a team of world class researchers from leading universities in the world and will gain first-hand experience implementing Randomized Control Trials in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research. The position will be based out of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, starting on Jun 15, 2025.
About the Project
Heavy subsidies on electricity used to pump water have spurred agricultural output in India but left farmers with little incentive to conserve power or water. This project tests a new voluntary contract with farmers in Andhra Pradesh by providing them with a fixed target and paid incentives for reductions, effectively splitting the gains in social and producer surplus between farmers and the state. The farmer could choose to spend the lump-sum subsidy on power or to reduce power consumption and keep the money. This refundable power subsidy model has been rolled out in Srikakulam, Eluru and East Godavari districts as an alternate model to the existing agricultural free power scheme and implemented by the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Corporation Limited (APEPDCL). We are looking for an RA to join the current team to support the intervention monitoring and endline survey for the study.
The Principal Investigators on the project are Nicholas Ryan (Yale University) and Anant Sudarshan (University of Warwick).
Key Responsibilities
The Research Associate will work closely with the Senior Research Associate, Research Manager and the academic researchers to perform a variety of tasks including, but not limited to:
Design and refine survey instruments
Manage field team: Train and supervise a team of enumerators
Conduct data quality checks during intervention monitoring and endline surveys
Support partner management in Vizag
Assist with data cleaning and preliminary data analysis
Assist in preparation of documents and presentations for donor reporting as well as dissemination activities
Support scoping for new research ideas in the field of energy, environment and climate change
Report to PIs on all of the above-mentioned activities
Desired Qualifications
A Bachelor's/Master’s degree in economics, engineering, social sciences, public policy, or related fields
Previous experience in development research preferred (any experience with RCTs in India is beneficial).
Excellent management and organizational skills along with strong quantitative skills
Fluency and excellent communication skills in English. Working knowledge of Telugu preferred. Knowing Hindi is beneficial.
Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player
Knowledge of Stata (strongly preferred) or other data analysis software is preferred
Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments
Note on Work Authorizations:
Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.
Annually based
Andhra Pradesh , India
Andhra Pradesh , India
