Predoctoral Researcher, Policy Impacts

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

Updated: 3 months ago
Location: Cambridge, MASSACHUSETTS

Posting Description

PREDOCTORAL RESEARCHER, POLICY IMPACTS, Economics, to conduct economic analysis as part of Policy Impacts , an organization founded by Professor Nathaniel Hendren that is dedicated to improving the quality of government decision-making by promoting standardization in policy analysis. Will work directly with Professor Hendren on research topics in applied micro-economics and empirical welfare analysis. Topics likely include the welfare analysis of policies targeting firms, international development policies, macroeconomic stabilization and fiscal stimulus policies, environmental policies, and the impact and incidence of labor market shocks. Will involve detailed and careful analysis and coding of the welfare impacts of government policies, literature reviews, and advanced meta-analysis methods using Stata and GitHub; analysis of large-scale datasets derived from Census and IRS tax forms; and build upon earlier work studying the welfare impacts of government policies , the impact of local labor markets on upward economic mobility , and the effectiveness of policies addressing climate change .


Job Requirements

REQUIRED: A bachelor’s degree in economics, computer science, mathematics, statistics, or a related field; a minimum of two years of specialized experience with quantitative data analysis, research methods, and/or social sciences research (which may include coursework or experience gained as an undergraduate); and experience with programming skills, particularly around data analysis, cleaning, and simulations.

The Predoctoral Researcher will receive a full-time, one-year appointment that is renewable annually (contingent on funding) and is not eligible for visa sponsorship. An employment term of two years is strongly preferred. This position will begin by July1, 2026.

All candidates should review the full job posting and application instructions before applying. Applicants must apply via MIT’s hiring site and complete an application at this link .

Revised 1/12/2026


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