I am planning to advertise for some roles working directly with Prof. Michael Kremer at the Development Innovation Lab. They would be a good fit for ambitious & pro-active people with strong writing skills and strong understanding of economics.
The Development Innovation Lab (DIL) at the University of Chicago uses the tools of economics to develop innovations with the potential to benefit millions of people. This includes both conducting research and collaborating with policymakers to bring impactful interventions to scale (while conducting further research where appropriate). DIL currently has work on water treatment (which has informed ~$100m of GiveWell investments in the past few years), education, digital agriculture and weather forecasting, and market shaping for pandemic preparedness & climate change.
DIL is led by Michael Kremer, who shared the 2019 Nobel prize for pioneering the use of RCTs in development economics. Kremer's contributions include seminal work on deworming, water treatment, education, digital agriculture, advance market commitments, social investment funds, and more.
We are interested in candidates with the following characteristics. We're interested in varying levels of seniority. If you're interested but think you have too little or too much experience, I encourage you to email me!
- Understanding of economics, including knowledge of economic principles, and ability to apply them rapidly to new circumstances and spot problems. Technical skills are preferred, but not required.
- Strong writing skills. Ability to communicate ideas accurately, precisely, and concisely. Good attention to detail for editing and improving documents written by others.
- Ability to work quickly and flexibly. Our work often involves short deadlines, requires multiple iterations, and involves rapid changes of plan based on new information. These roles would be a good fit for people who are pro-active, organized, and flexible.
Please email me at arthurbaker@uchicago.edu if you're interested. I will post links here as I get them.
I think that we have a lot of opportunities to influence policies reaching very large numbers of people and we are talent-constrained, so I think to the degree that you're interested in GHD, you might have a large counterfactual impact here!
(Note, this is not an official job description! We will ultimately post JDs with specific requirements and run competitive processes)