Summer Intern

IPA is accepting interns for the summer of 2010. Positions are likely to be available in a number of countries and interns typically perform a variety of types of work, such as:

• Participate in an on-going field experiment: Interns assist with overall project monitoring and implementation: coordinating between field survey teams, strategic partners, vendors, data entry teams, and other support staff; facilitating the data entry process; and contributing to data cleaning and analysis.
• Conduct exploratory qualitative work: Interns may conduct open-ended interviews with households and communities to document puzzling facts or behaviors and help develop new research ideas and designs.
• Participate in ongoing qualitative research on money lending around the world: Interns would undertake a thorough study of money lending practices in the country of their choice. The final product will be a write-up detailing all aspects of money lending practices that have been discovered and identifying themes or conundrums in the business of money lending.
• Help with IPA dissemination strategy: One of IPA's missions is to disseminate its results actively to practitioners and policy makers. Academic papers are not enough to communicate results in an effective way. Interns would help write policy pieces and innovative reading material targeted at practitioners.
• Provide research assistance at IPA's headquarters: Interns at IPA's offices in New Haven lend support through a variety of technical and administrative tasks, which may include data cleaning and preliminary analysis, development of proposals, project documentation, and general organizational duties.

Qualifications

Required:

• Proficiency in English. Strong oral and written communications skills. Depending on the country, proficiency in the local language may be required.
• Excellent management and organizational skills and ability to work independently
• Demonstrated interest in economics or social science research.

Preferred:

• Developing country experience, cultural sensitivity, and demonstrated ability to work successfully with diverse constituencies.
• Course work or experience in research methods
• Coursework in econometrics, advanced knowledge of Stata or experience with data management.
• Familiarity with randomized control trials.

To apply, send your CV and a cover letter to intern@poverty-action.org with the subject heading "Summer 2010 Internship".  If you are interested in a particular country or region, please include this in the subject line as well.  Please note that internships are unpaid.

A printable version of this announcement is available here.