"Research Assistant (Centre for the Study of African Economies)"

Department of Economics

180963 - Research Assistant (Centre for the Study of African Economies)

University of Oxford – CSAE, Department of Economics

Research Grade 6: £ 34,982 - £ 40,855 p. a.

Project Title: Shock-Responsive Social Protection and Climate Resilience

Principal Investigator: Professor Stefan Dercon

Contract Type: Fixed-term, from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026 (extension possible based on funding)

About the project: This project evaluates the effectiveness of anticipatory cash transfers in response to climate disasters, using large-scale RCTs in Bangladesh and other countries. It investigates how early interventions can mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events and improve household resilience.

CSAE is seeking to appoint a full-time Research Assistant to provide research and administrative support on the project, with a strong focus on data cleaning, management and analysis. While the postholder will work most closely with Stefan Dercon, they will regularly engage with the principal investigators and the supporting research teams at partner organisations, including the World Bank, the BRAC Institute for Governance and Development, GiveDirectly, FCDO, J-PAL, IRC, and other organisations as the research portfolio expands. The postholder will be responsible for providing support on grant applications, contributing to writing pre-analysis plans, engaging with research partners and exploring new research partnerships (for instance, by attending regular meetings), assisting in the design of survey instruments, providing oversight on data collection, and cleaning and analysing data when it comes in. The postholder will also play a key role in developing materials to communicate our results, including presentations and policy brief.

Key responsibilities include:

• Data cleaning, management, and econometric analysis
• Supporting fieldwork design and survey development
• Preparing research briefs, presentations, and policy outputs
• Liaising with research partners (e.g., BRAC, GiveDirectly, J-PAL)

The closing date is 19th August 2025, and online interviews are scheduled for the week starting 25th August 2025.

Contact Person:

HR Team

Vacancy ID:

180963

Contact Phone:

Closing Date & Time:

19-Aug-2025 12:00

Pay Scale:

RESEARCH GRADE 6

Contact Email:

[personnel@economics.ox.ac.uk]

Salary (£):

£ 34,982 - £ 40,855 p. a