Economist
Overview:
The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is a non-profit corporation supporting the Department of Defense and other federal government agencies with applied economics and multi-disciplinary research.
Responsibilities:
IDA researchers support senior defense officials by applying economic theory to issues of National Security policy and resource management. This ranges from applying proven tools to new problems and data, to developing new models, to generating new theory. Recent examples include:
- Developing a machine learning model to predict when individual service members will separate from the military, based on a rich set of administrative personnel records;
- Constructing mechanisms for the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to care for each other’s patients and to transfer funding across departments;
- Designing a trial of alcohol market interventions for use on military bases to learn whether such intervention can prevent harmful behaviors associated with alcohol misuse;
- Exploring alternative organizational structures and delivery methods for educating and training military medical personnel, in order to reduce costs and streamline management;
- Architecting a collaborative data-hosting analytic platform to facilitate timely and secure analysis of sensitive Department of Defense information assets across a diverse community of users;
- Evaluating the marginal return to military readiness from using full-time support personnel in the Army National Guard as an augmentation to their drilling soldiers;
- Identifying opportunities to transfer positions among active and reserve military personnel, federal civilians, and contractors in order to reduce costs and concentrate military personnel in more operational (vs. administrative) positions.
IDA takes great pride in the high caliber and timeliness of its analyses, which are produced in an atmosphere that encourages independent thinking and objective results. IDA has openings for highly qualified PhD economists to join our growing research staff. We will consider job market candidates preparing to graduate, recent graduates, and mid-career individuals. In particular, IDA is seeking candidates skilled in applied economics (including health economics, labor economics, public economics, industrial organization, and mechanism design). Work at IDA is conducted in a team environment and often involves a multi-disciplinary approach with physicists, engineers, economists, and other social scientists. Researchers work closely with and are in frequent contact with government sponsors. Consequently, strong communication skills are greatly valued.
Qualifications:
- Ph.D. in Economics.
- Prior experience in applied economics (including health economics, labor economics, public economics, industrial organization, and mechanism design).
- Applicants must have demonstrated research excellence and a strong interest in applied research.
- Applicants must have also demonstrated superior skill in quantitative, econometric, statistical, or computational methods.
- Experience with machine learning techniques and large data sets is a plus.
- Familiarity with the DoD budget and the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process is a plus.
At a later stage in the process, candidates will be asked to provide three letters of recommendation, unofficial transcripts, and job market paper (or equivalent).