Research Assistant - Urbanisation Economics

University of Oxford
Oxford - United Kingdom
S: Grade 6 competitive

Grade 6: £27,629 - £32,958 with a discretionary range to £36,001 p.a.

A major joint research programme on urbanisation in developing economies, with particular reference to Africa, has been launched at LSE's Spatial Economics Research Centre and Oxford's Department of Economics, with support from the World Bank. Professors Vernon Henderson (LSE) Paul Collier and Tony Venables (Oxford) are recruiting a Research Assistant. This will involve conceptual and econometric work on the overall urbanisation process in developing countries and on the internal development of cities, in particular large African cities. There will be intensive use of satellite data (to classify land use), night lights data, demographic census data, DHS data, survey data, mapping and planning data. The programme offers outstanding opportunities to contribute to cutting edge research in the field, based in two of Europe's leading social science research and training institutions.

We have one fixed-term research post at Oxford, operating for 1 year in the first instance with the possibility of a 12-month extension subject to the availability of external funding.

You will assist the Directors in examining the patterns of urban growth within developing countries and within cities in different African countries, through the collection, collation and analysis of demographic, economic, infrastructure mapping and satellite data. You should have: either a first or upper second class undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in economics or spatial economics AND experience as a research assistant for economics research; OR a Masters in economics, spatial economics or related degree with an economics track (e.g., Public Policy) with evidence that all requirements are completed by 31 August 2017.

Knowledge and experience of statistical methods and packages such as STATA, experience in handling and merging of extremely large data sets, and training in and knowledge of GIS are required. Experience with spatial programming tools like Python (and R) is highly desirable. You will prepare reports comprising descriptive statistics and tables and econometric results with explanatory text. Opportunities will be made for those with initiative and creativity to co-author papers.

The other criteria that will be used when shortlisting for this post can be found in the further particulars.

Send any enquiries about the position to the email address below quoting reference 129731. This is a joint LSE/Oxford research programme, the role will be based in the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford. Applications are to be submitted through Oxford's recruitment portal and the recruitment and selection process will be handled by Oxford.

Applications must be received by 12.00 noon on Monday 31 July 2017. Interviews will be held in Oxford in August 2017 on a date to be confirmed.

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