Research Associate, Economics and Public Policy

Job Description

Research Associate, Economics and Public Policy

Reports to: Director of Economic Research

Lafayette Square

Lafayette Square is an impact investment platform working locally to create an inclusive American economy. Through capital and services, Lafayette Square seeks to invest in diverse middle-market companies, within overlooked communities throughout the United States. The platform utilizes a combination of place-based sourcing, alongside its financial, technological, and operational expertise to unlock value for its portfolio companies. The firm is led by Damien Dwin, who founded the firm in 2020.

Lafayette Square believes combining capital with services creates long-term, sustainable impact in underserved communities.

Job Summary 

The technology team seeks a research associate emphasizing economics and public policy to join the team in research and analysis on economic and policy matters. This includes subject matter around employment, wages, industry sectors, GDP growth, consumer price index, local business trends, and many others. Analysis would focus on specific geographical locations across the country and economic trends within specific regions. The intended outcome of research is to provide insights to help build a data intelligence platform that would aid and scale our business verticals and impact efforts. We seek individuals with a track record of creative thinking, strong empirical research abilities, and excellent communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Place-based data analysis on various economic and social indicators.
• Analyzing the economic impact of capital and services entering local regions
• Produce economic data insights to help build our data intelligence platform.
• Interpret and forecast the trends of the economy by studying present and historical trends.
• Ability to understand and use economics data, understand correlation, and derive insight.

Requirements

• Require bachelor's or master's in economics, public policy, or a related field.
• At least 1 to 2 years of direct experience or relevant coursework
• Experience with statistical modeling and data analysis with large public and private datasets using relevant software (R, Stata, SPSS, Python, etc)
• Comfortable with querying and manipulating data in SQL.
• Great analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Strong interest in the fields of research and analysis, especially pertaining to socioeconomic issues.
• Solid oral and written communication skills, especially around economic concepts and methods.
• Experience or interest in finance, machine learning, and artificial intelligence is a plus.

Compensation

$100,000 – $150,000 depending on experience

Contact

For more information, please email your resume to: [email protected]