Economist

Legatum Institute
London - United Kingdom
S: £45,000

The Legatum Institute is a London-based think-tank with a global vision: to see all people lifted out of poverty. Our mission is to create the pathways from poverty to prosperity. One of the ways we do this is through our Centre for Metrics, which provides clear, accurate metrics to enable leaders to make clear, accurate public policy decisions. We also use this centre as a major data source for our Prosperity Indexes and our Global Index of Economic Openness.

PURPOSE
We are looking for a self-motivated economist, who's excited by the prospect of helping us tackle major socio-economic challenges, by unearthing key insights from data and evidence. The post-holder will hold a range of responsibilities including leading research and analysis of the macro-economic challenges and opportunities in different countries, and finding insights from this analysis to inform our understanding of prosperity. This will in turn be used to formulate policy options by policy makers, academics and thought-leaders.

ACCOUNTABILITIES
Analysis, Research and Writing

• Identify and understand the economic research requirements of the Institute's programmes
• Formulate hypotheses for how these questions can be addressed, including the component topics and the possible data-assets to explore
• Derive meaningful insights from data, reports, and other sources
• Undertake macro-economic analysis to derive new information, applying decision logic and statistical techniques and to augment findings with insight from policy journals, academic papers etc.
• Keep abreast of key economic developments/trends, especially within target countries, and help identify opportunities as they arise, especially on the structural/market reform side.
• Work with our team of data specialists to integrate new data sources into our information fact-base that will inform the analyses
• Assemble conclusions alongside the Legatum Institute's policy specialists, including via oral presentations and in written format

PERSON SPECIFICATION
Experience and Knowledge

• Degree, in Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences or other related fields.
• 5+ years' experience as an economist, consultant, economic analyst, policy analyst or in a similar role is desirable
• Experience of econometric modelling
• A strong interest in international economics, political economy, public policy, and social affairs
• A proven background in producing high quality research and writing, preferably for a policy/government audience
• Excellent IT skills with knowledge of data analysis tools (e.g. Python, R, SQL, Stata and SPSS)
• Knowledge of the Microsoft office suite, including PowerPoint, Excel and Word
• Deep quantitative and analytical experience; strong data and analytical skills, ideally rooted in a quantitative degree or field and experience in using this analysis to develop compelling fact-based written narratives

Skills
• Strong capabilities in data-driven research, including problem structuring, hypotheses formulation, analysis and visualisation
• Ability to ask "why" of data and consider a variety of outcomes before reaching conclusions
• A strong awareness of the need for accuracy, quality control and process control
• Strong written and verbal communications and an ability to present problem statements, concepts and conclusions to a variety of internal and external stakeholders including experts and policy-makers through reports, presentations and other written output

Personal Attributes
• Has a positive approach and is optimistic, in outlook
• Has vision and desire to create value for the long term
• Self-motivated and able to drive activity forward
• Good judgement about when to use initiative and when to consult
• A hard worker who sets ambitious goals and perseveres to achieve them
• Consistently performs at a high level, pays attention to detail

Job summary