Job Description Summary

Wharton School Overview
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The Associate Economist will perform statistical modeling and economic analyses as part of the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM) initiative. The position involves applying economics, software engineering, and advanced statistical and machine learning skills to assist with model development and economics and policy research related to business tax, trade, and fiscal policies.

This position is contingent upon restricted funding.

Responsibilities/Duties:

• Architect, develop, and refine all aspects of the PWBM Tax Module (a business tax microsimulation model), including development and implementation of advanced statistical and machine learning methods, forecasting of macroeconomic and business sector trends, and modeling of taxpayer behavioral and economic responses to policy.
• Acquire, process, and combine data from corporate tax returns, financial statements, and business surveys using machine learning and integrate the data from various sources into the PWBM Tax Module.
• Develop and refine a model of the economic effects of tariffs, including budgetary impact, distributional effects, and the benefits or costs for U.S. businesses.
• Run tax policy analysis models to produce tax policy scores and economic analysis in response to requests from policymakers.
• Evaluate, recommend, and implement techniques for estimating policy impacts based on theoretical and empirical economics literature, and produce briefs and blogs for the PWBM website explaining results of research and analyses.
• Identify project needs and design and write robust code for automating analyses, data, and visualization processes that can be applied broadly within the modeling codebase to accomplish varied project needs, utilizing R, Python, and SQL.
• Provide direction to junior research analysts on data management, statistical modeling, and tax policy.
• Attend conferences and participate in the interviewing process for the hiring of junior analysts.

Qualifications:

Requires a U.S. Bachelor's degree in Economics or a related field and 4 years of relevant experience, or alternatively, a Master's degree in same and 2 years of relevant experience.

Experience must include: compiling, cleaning, and organizing datasets from corporate tax returns, financial statements, and national economic accounts; running econometric and statistical analysis to support business tax policy analysis and modeling; modeling investment and capital services; and setting up and running a business tax microsimulation model to facilitate tax policy analysis - all using R, Python, and SQL.

Permitted to work remotely from home (within the same MSA) 60% of the time. Very minimal domestic travel (<1%) to attend conferences and meetings to present Penn Wharton Budget Model work and stay abreast of developments in the field.

Application Instructions:

Submit a cover letter and resume.

Job Location - City, State

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Department / School

Wharton School

Pay Range

$83,500.00 - $138,000.00 Annual Rate