Research Associate – Immigration Policy

Cato Institute is a public policy research organization dedicated to individual liberty and limited government. They are seeking a Research Associate to support the immigration team by using statistical methods to produce original empirical research and assist in various research projects related to immigration policy.

Responsibilities

• Support the research of the senior members of the immigration team (80-90%) as well as other departments on an as-needed basis (10-20%). Roughly half of the Research Associate’s work will be for short-term day-to-day projects; the other half will be for longer-term projects
• Gather, clean, and format datasets from numerous sources, such as the Current Population Survey, American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Survey of Income and Program Participation, and others
• Help prepare presentable statistical output in the form of figures and tables for other members of the Cato team
• Efficiently and accurately proofread or update policy reports, blog posts, and other written content
• Replicate statistical findings from academic research, policy analyses and government reports
• Potentially co-author policy analyses, working papers, blog posts, and other empirical work with members of the Cato immigration team

Skills

• A bachelor's in economics, statistics, data science, or any field that requires strong quantitative skills
• A prior internship or work experience with references
• Prior work with statistics
• Prior academic or non-academic writing experience
• Familiarity with two or more software packages or programming languages used for data analysis (such as Excel, Stata, R, Python, MATLAB, etc.)
• An understanding of and interest in Cato's libertarian mission and immigration policy
• Strong organizational skills, including the ability to work on multiple tasks both independently and as part of a team on a time-sensitive basis
• A commitment to accuracy and precision
• Strong writing and editing skills
• An advanced degree is preferred
• Familiarity with Census survey microdata is a plus
• Cover letter optional

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Employer contribution to a Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Generous vacation and sick days
• Paid parental leave
• Employer-provided life and disability insurance
• 401(k) employer match
• Transit/ Parking benefits
• Pet discount plan

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