Job Opportunity for Research Associate -Gay Rights in India at Poverty Action Lab in Chennai

Country: India

States: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Start Date: ASAP

Length of Commitment: 12 months

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

Organization: J-PAL South Asia at IFMR

Company description:

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 Chennai with frequent trips to the field and coordination with the study partner.

About the Project

A longstanding hypothesis in the legal literature, the “expressive law” hypothesis, states that the law can affect behaviour by acting as a signal of what type of behavior is seen as socially acceptable. This project will act as a direct test of this claim.

The project aims to test whether the expansion of the legal rights of a highly stigmatized minority in India, homosexual people, has an effect on pro- and anti-gay attitudes, behaviour and communication by altering social norms. Leveraging the Section 377 Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that decriminalised homosexuality across India, the study will use a lab-in-the-field experiment to measure the effect of exposing a random selection of individuals to the information that homosexuality is legal. It will measure how this affects societal prejudice by examining the impact of this information on individuals’ attitudes and behaviour towards homosexual individuals.

The Principal Investigator on the project is Duncan Webb (PhD candidate at Paris School of Economics).

Key Responsibilities

Research Associates work closely with academic researchers and other field staff to perform a variety tasks including, but not limited to:

–     Design and refine survey instruments

–     Oversee the implementation of the evaluation in accordance to the research design in association with our partner organization

–     Manage teams during pilot and scale-up phases: Recruit, train, and supervise a team of enumerators

–     Supervise data collection and data-entry to ensure good data quality during pilot and scale-up phases

–     Maintain relationship with partner organizations at headquarters

–     Build relationships with local stakeholders on field to ensure smooth project implementation

–     Assist with data cleaning and preliminary data analysis

–     Assist in preparation of documents and presentations for donor reporting as well as dissemination activities

–     Report to PIs on all of the above-mentioned activities

Desired Qualifications

–     A Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in engineering, economics, social sciences, public policy, or related fields

–     Previous experience in development research preferred (any experience in agriculture sector in India is beneficial).

–     Excellent management and organizational skills along with strong quantitative skills

–     Fluency and excellent communication skills in English. Conversational Tamil skills are strongly preferred.

–     Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player

–     Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations

–     Knowledge of Stata (strongly preferred) or other data analysis software is preferred

–     Familiarity with randomized controlled trials preferred

–     Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments

Note on Work Authorizations

Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.