Associate Economist

Associate Economist

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey.

Wharton School Overview

Founded in 1881 as the world's first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world.

Job Description Summary

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.

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.