Send an expression of interest by June 30th
The ICTD is looking for talented, passionate and motivated junior researchers to support our expanded research programme.
This is a call for expressions of interests for researchers who fit the profile described below. Details on the nature of engagement are intentionally left flexible at this stage, as we are open to connecting with junior researchers as pre-docs, post-docs, research officers, or to provide PhD studentships for work closely related to the ICTD’s research agenda.
Areas of research
Within the ICTD’s broader remit, we are particularly looking for researchers who are interested in working in the following areas, in no particular order of importance:
- Taxing the wealthy in low-income countries: We are looking to expand our empirical work on taxes on the wealthy (e.g. capital gains taxes, personal income taxes on high net worth individuals, wealth taxes, rental income taxes, property taxes), ideally by conducting field evaluations using administrative data, along with other datasets and approaches. This is rooted in our longstanding focus on building more equitable tax systems – and is especially relevant in a post-pandemic world, where tax revenues have declined in many countries and financing needs are greater than ever.
- Gender and Tax: The ICTD has generated a significant body of evidence as a leading source of research on differences in tax burdens, experience and behaviours across genders. We are looking for a motivated junior researcher to perform systematic data analysis on datasets – both administrative and surveys – that are already available to us and that can be disaggregated by gender. We aim to produce broad comparative information about key issues related to gender and tax across countries, as a foundation to guide further expansion of our work in this area.
- DIGITAX programme: The DIGITAX programme studies the impact of taxes on mobile money and digital financial services (DFS) and, in turn, how the digitisation of the economy may facilitate improvements in tax administration and tax collection, through, for example, access to improved third party and transaction data. We are looking for researchers with strong skills in data analysis to work on large datasets from mobile money operators and/or from revenue authorities, to support the broader DIGITAX research agenda.
- Tax Administration and Compliance: At the heart of our program is work on tax administration and compliance, spanning from the evaluation of tax policies to rigorous data analysis aimed at understanding how tax administrations work in practice, and how they can increase compliance. We work closely with a variety of government partners to analyse their administrative data and develop unique collaborative research programmes.
While we are looking to increase our team’s capacity particularly in these research areas, we encourage researchers who join our team to develop their own research agenda and propose themes and projects that are of interest to them. These can be developed in addition to or as part of the work on existing ICTD research programmes and needs.
Desired researcher profile
We are particularly looking for researchers with the following skills and experience:
- Excellent and proven skills in data analysis and quantitative methods (required);
- Excellent and proven skills in the use of Stata (required);
- Experience of work or fieldwork in low or middle-income countries, preferably in Africa and South Asia (strongly preferred);
- Ability to summarise complex research results in easy and concise ways;
- Ability to work independently, within a team;
- Understanding of tax or public finance, and a strong interest to work on this theme.
- Master or PhD (completed or ongoing) in Economics, Political Science, or related disciplines.
Location and nature of engagement
The ICTD is a multi-country organisation. We have two primary bases at the Institute of Development Studies / University of Sussex (IDS, UK) and the University of Toronto (UofT, Canada). In addition to the team based at these two institutions, we also have team members in other countries, predominantly in Africa. The global nature of the ICTD allows us to be flexible in where and how exactly we engage researchers. We are open to researchers who would work primarily remotely, with frequent travel to the countries of interest and the UK / Canada hubs.
Similarly, we can be flexible on the exact details and nature of engagements depending on the candidate, location, type of work, and time commitment (part time or full time). Here below are some examples of ways in which junior researchers can potentially become involved:
- Research Officer at IDS or UofT: an employment contract, part time or full time, for a limited period of time (potentially renewed).
- Research Associate / consultant with the ICTD: a consultancy contract linked to specific projects and for a set period of time.
- PhD studentship: funding for PhD costs, provided a strong overlap between the PhD thesis and the ICTD’s research agenda.
- Post-doc or pre-doc at the University of Toronto or Sussex/IDS.
Depending on the expressions of interest we receive and the desired mode of engagement, the ICTD may create a formal recruitment process and invite interested researchers to apply.
Send us your CV
If you would like to be considered, please send your CV to [email protected] with subject “Your Name – Expression of Interest”. We will give priority to those who put themselves forward before 30th June, 2021.
