Research Assistant

London School of Economics and Political Science - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)

Location: London

Salary: £36,513 to £41,565 pa inclusive with potential to progress to £44,468 pa inclusive of London allowance

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On: 3rd November 2025

Closes: 30th November 2025

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Salary from £36,513 to £41,565 pa inclusive with potential to progress to £44,468 pa inclusive of London allowance

Fixed term appointment for 1 year with scope for further 6-month extension subject to funding

The Centre for Economic Performance is seeking to appoint a full-time research assistant (“pre-doc”) in the education and skills programme for a one-year period.

Led by Dr Rui Costa, Dr Nikhil Datta and Dr Matteo Sandi, the role-holder will provide assistance on the ‘Diversion and Structural Change in the Youth Criminal Justice System’ project, funded by the Youth Endowment Fund. There will also be potential to work on a number of associated projects at the CEP relating to the education and criminal justice systems in England. This will involve quantitatively analysing the data linkage from the UK’s Department for Education and Ministry of Justice (DfE-MoJ dataset) with a focus on students who have contact with the justice system. The role will assist with scraping, cleaning, merging and preparation of large micro data sources for modelling and analysis. The Research Assistant will primarily focus on data and initial analysis under guidance from research supervisors and will help model clearly defined areas of analysis.

The successful candidate should have an undergraduate degree in Economics or other quantitative discipline. They should also hold a Masters in Economics or other quantitative science discipline, standard of Masters should qualify entry to a PhD programme and should be completed by post start date.

Essential criteria include: An undergraduate degree in Economics or other quantitative discipline to be completed by post start date. Advanced experience of using natural language processing and web scraping techniques for generating large scale micro data sets. Advanced experience of using Stata or similar programs for analysing large scale micro data sets. Eligibility to work with the confidential administrative data linkage from the UK’s Department for Education and Ministry of Justice (DfE-MoJ dataset) in a secure data environment in the UK. Ability to perform literature reviews and search for data sources. Ability to interpret and analyse patterns or trends in data. Ability to perform data work requiring great accuracy and attention to detail. Ability to think through economic problems analytically and identify appropriate methods of economic investigation. Ability to work independently, without close supervision. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to convey complex technical material in simple and clear terms.

Visit https://cep.lse.ac.uk/ for information about the Centre for Economic Performance

We offer an occupational pension scheme, generous annual leave and excellent training and development opportunities.

For further information about the post, please see the how to apply document, job description and the person specification.

If you have any technical queries with applying on the online system, please use the “contact us” links at the bottom of the LSE Jobs page. Should you have any queries about the role, please email c.h.tocock@lse.ac.uk

The closing date for receipt of applications is 30 November 2025 (23.59 UK time). Regrettably, we are unable to accept any late applications.