Job Opportunity for Project Associate- Demand for Flexibility in the Workplace and Contract Choice at Poverty Action Lab in Bhubaneshwar

Project: Demand for Flexibility in the Workplace and Contract Choice

Location: Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Project Description:

The project aims to study a demand for flexibility in work arrangements among casual labourers using a field experiment in Odisha. We plan to document workers’ preferences over types of labour contracts and their willingness to pay for flexibility in work arrangements. In addition to the worker experiment, we conduct a survey with employers in Odisha. The goal of this firm survey is to assemble unique data that will allow us to characterize firms’ production function constraints, as well as understand their strategies for dealing with worker absenteeism and turnover. In the survey, we will also document employers’ beliefs to unpack whether employers have accurate beliefs about worker demand for flexibility and whether they over- or under-estimate differences in demand across caste groups.

Roles and Responsibilities:

The Project Associate shall oversee the field implementation of the firm survey as well as the worker experiment in the Khurda and Cuttack districts. The PA will assist the Research Associate in making field visits during the pilot stage of the firm survey to test the questionnaire and will manage field survey teams during the survey stage. They may also be required to visit firms on their own to recruit them for participating in the survey. The PA will manage the worker experiment in conjunction with the RA, survey coordinator, and field supervisors to ensure quality and effective implementation. The PA shall work closely with the Research Associates and project field staff to perform a variety of tasks including, but not limited to:

• Conducting scoping visits to firms and worksites for the worker experiments;
• Designing and conducting quality assessment protocols and field visits;
• Supervising all technical aspects: train and supervise field-based team on survey and worker experiment protocols;
• Reporting to Research Associate and Manager on all of the above-mentioned activities