Undergraduate opportunities
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Are you interested in research and policy-making in international development?
Would you like to play a part in policy-making becoming more evidence-informed?
Would you like to develop your skills to critically engage with academic papers at the frontier of quantitative research?
The Global Poverty Research Lab (GPRL) at Northwestern University is hiring undergraduates who have a good grasp of and interest in quantitative social science research. We are in the process of creating a comprehensive library of research findings in international development to facilitate evidence-informed policy-making.
What is in it for you:
- Get paid to engage with frontier research on key policy issues (i.e., trainings, cash transfers, microcredit for small businesses)
- Receive extensive training in how to read and codify quantitative social science research
- Receive extensive, on-demand, and personalized supervision to help you improve your skills
- Develop practical academic literacy skills complementary to more theoretical academic coursework
- Help shape the research tools we use through critical feedback
- Flexibly decide to work from home or interact with us and other early career researchers in the GPRL offices in Evanston
- Contribute to an exciting and likely impactful public good
What you need:
- Available 10 to 20 hours per week (exceptions for exam season not a problem)
- Genuine curiosity to understand quantitative social science research
- Trained in inferential statistics or econometrics and able to read result tables in quantitative social science studies.
How to apply:
- Reach out to Andre Nickow (a-nickow@kellogg.northwestern.edu) with your CV, unofficial transcript, and five sentences of your experience with and interest in academic work in international development. Applications are being considered on a rolling basis.
Recent Undergrad RAs on their experience working for GPRL:
“I really enjoyed working to analyze and understand the Ghana Panel Survey in the Lab. I have learned a great deal about statistical programming and development economics by working with Professor Udry, Andre, and my teammates. My RA experience has definitely made me more capable of conducting data analysis and more determined to pursue economics research in the future.”
“Working at the GPRL has been a very formative experience of my undergraduate career. Besides greatly improving my technical skills and exploring how the economics I’ve learned in the classroom are applied in the real world, the work environment has been supportive and flexible in giving me projects that I’m genuinely interested in. This was super helpful in leading me to a career path I’m genuinely passionate about and excited to continue working in.”
Adrian Lafont-Mueller, Phillipines Socioeconomic Panel Survey
"Thanks to the GPRL, I have had the opportunity to put my skills as a CS major to good use! Throughout the project I have been encouraged to learn new techniques and explore their behaviors and inner workings to investigate how they can be applied to our goal of processing and classifying development economics papers."
Matthew Khoriaty
"GPRL is one of the only places where Northwestern undergraduates have the opportunity to take an active role in the field of development economics. For that reason, I feel well-prepared to further pursue graduate level economics, if I so desire."
Tomas Gordo-Churchill
Study abroad in Ghana
The Department of Economics and the Global Poverty Research Lab offer a study abroad opportunity for Northwestern undergraduates at the University of Ghana – Legon each fall quarter. What makes this opportunity unique is that students will be matched with a University of Ghana faculty member in order to conduct independent research on a project involving economic development.
- Research: Students will be matched with a faculty member to perform data analysis in Stata on one of the faculty member’s current projects. Potential topics include health, environment, labor markets, small enterprises, agriculture, and poverty and migration.
- Internship Opportunity: Students will have the opportunity to extend their time in Ghana by continuing their independent research with a related internship.
2025 Application deadline: September 10th, 2024
Application Information: NU Global Learning Website- Ghana Study Abroad
It was an amazing experience to learn more about Ghana through researching with a distinguished professor at one of the best universities in Africa. The things I learned regarding the research process have helped me in interviews more than I ever would have imagined. Try to be as involved with the data collection/cleaning process as much as possible.