Advisor - Economic Growth and Productivity

The Behavioural Insights Team
London - United Kingdom
S: £33,915 - £45,88

Advisor – Economic Growth and Productivity
Permanent: 39 hours per week
Based in Central London

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) is recruiting for an Advisor to join our growing Economic Growth and Productivity team. The successful applicant will work on a range of projects applying behavioural insights to economic policy problems, with a particular focus on macroeconomic policy, market functioning and business support.

The Behavioural Insights Team
The then Prime Minister created BIT in 2010 to apply behavioural science to public policy in the UK. In February 2014 we became a social purpose company, owned by the Cabinet Office, Nesta (an innovation charity) and our employees.

The Behavioural Insights Team works with governments around the world in almost every area of policy. Whilst the subject and output of our projects varies considerably, there are common threads: we try to understand the contexts in which people make decisions; we notice small details; we find out what has and hasn't worked before; we come up with innovative ideas for solving policy problems and we measure everything we do as robustly as we can.

As well as displaying professional excellence, BIT selects staff on the basis of our company values: always prioritising social impact; empiricism and humility; fresh thinking, collaboration; and public service.

Role and responsibilities
As an Advisor, you will work across a wide range or projects, providing expert advice and project management. You will likely lead aspects of projects, working to a Senior Advisor in the Economic Growth team, and will also undertake and take responsibility for discrete pieces of work such as literature reviews, research notes, and developing policy solutions.

Some of the key questions we are interested in include: what do behavioural insights mean for monetary and fiscal policy? How do 'animal spirits' influence the economy, and what should policymakers do about them? How can a behavioural insights approach correct market failures in business-to-business markets? Can we shift firm decision-making towards higher levels of investment in innovation and skills?

Projects you may be working on could include: testing ways of improving comprehension of future inflation and central bank decisions among the general public, developing policy recommendations for improving business-to-business markets, such as accountancy and legal services and encouraging businesses to export, innovate and take up high-quality business advice.

You will get regular exposure to a range of senior stakeholders and be expected to actively contribute to company development. Most of our Advisors have a Masters degree and prior work experience in either a policy or consulting role.

Essential
• A strong academic background in economics, including both macroeconomics and microeconomics;
• Experience developing or delivering economic or business policy;
• A good understanding of the behavioural science literature and how it can be applied to solve economic policy problems;
• Curiosity about, and real interest in, current challenges related to macroeconomic policy, productivity and economic growth in developed economies;
• Good, demonstrable project management skills;
• Ability to support the design and implementation of rigorous evaluation, including but not limited to randomised controlled trials;
• Excellent written and verbal communication (for example, the ability to write short policy notes for government ministers or senior civil servants);
• Strategic thinking and creative problem-solving; and
• Strong teamwork skills – as part of a small team you will need to be reliable and willing to take responsibility for elements of projects, meetings and daily routines.

Desirable
• Masters in economics or related subject area; and
• Experience applying concepts from the behavioural science or psychology literature to economic or business policy.

Job summary