Job Opportunity for Research Associate Position – Direct Benefit Transfers for Electricity, Punjab at Poverty Action Lab in Chandigarh

Organization:

 J-PAL South Asia

Location:

India

Start Date (Earliest):

30 May 2023

Length of Commitment:

Less than one year

Company Description:

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) seeks a qualified applicant for the position of Research Associate for a project on agriculture, water, power, and environment in India. 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. The position is primarily located in India and the principal investigators are J-PAL affiliated professors.

Project Description:

Agricultural electricity subsidies in India were created as a lifeline to farmers, allowing the spread of irrigation using electric pumps to extract groundwater. Instead, they have locked rural India into a destructive cycle of groundwater depletion and bad power supply. Farmers, given electricity for free, use too much, draining groundwater, worsening poverty, and bankrupting electricity distributors. Given the over-use caused by pricing power below cost, both farmers and the distribution companies could be made better off if subsidies were given as a lump-sum transfer, rather than being tied to power use. In collaboration with the Government of Punjab’s Departments of Agriculture and Power, the researchers will collect data and design a welfare-improving reform. This project responds to a request from the Government of Punjab for innovative ideas in the power sector and is one of the first evaluations to come out of the MoU between the Government of Punjab and J-PAL South Asia. 

The question of this study is: whether lump sum subsidies, a shift from conditional subsidies lead to a significant change in electricity and thus groundwater consumption for crop irrigation? J-PAL SA has been working as a monitoring and evaluation partner to the distribution company, the departments of Power and Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare of the Government of Punjab to evaluate the Paani Bachao Paise Kamao scheme since 2018. Our study (PIs: Prof. Nicholas Ryan and Prof. Anant Sudarshan) evaluates an innovative subsidy delivery mechanism where farmers are provided lump power subsidies with an incentive to reduce power consumption as compared to the status quo of government expending on every marginal electricity unit consumed by farmers. This study will design, implement and evaluate a subsidy delivery innovation that aims to make farmers better off while reducing discom losses and the power subsidy burden on the state government. The proposed innovation establishes a subsidy entitlement, or target, based on the past consumption of an agricultural consumer on a given feeder. Consumers who draw less than their entitlement would then be paid at the rate of Rs. 4 for each unit saved. This refundable payment is calculated automatically on the basis of consumption readings and transferred to the farmer’s bank account. Farmers would be able to withdraw the refunded subsidy amount, under the pilot, which is not the case with the current power subsidy regime. If the consumption exceeds entitlement, the power continues to be free but no benefits are transferred and the farmers are not charged for excess consumption.

The evaluation would then ask: what is the take-up of this alternate subsidy delivery mechanism? How much does the higher marginal price induce conservation of electricity and groundwater? How does its take-up affect the distribution company’s costs and losses and the farmer’s productivity?

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 and in association with our partner organizations.
• Designing and refining survey instruments for quantitative and at times qualitative data collection.
• Lead extensive data collection activities.
• 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
• Conduct quantitative analysis of electric pumpset usage and power and water conservation by farmers
• Maintaining relationships with partner organizations at both headquarters and field levels to support enrolment activities and monitoring completion of other scheme processes such as meter installation, meter reading, subsidy transfer, etc.
• Reporting to PIs on all of the above-mentioned activities.

Desired Qualifications and Experience:

Required:

• A Master’s degree in Economics (or related field) or Engineering. Bachelor’s candidates with at least 1 year of work experience or demonstrable experience in STATA/R/Python coding will also be considered.
• 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. Fluency in Punjabi is desired but not necessary
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player.
• Willingness to live in Chandigarh and travel extensively to study areas in Punjab.
• Good knowledge of STATA or other data analysis tool.

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, Python etc.) is desired
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations
• We are looking for a commitment period of 14 months for this position.

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).