Junior Specialist / Assistant Specialist - Economics - Department of Economics
The University of California, Berkeley
About this position
Position Overview
Salary range: The UC academic salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and step at appointment. See the following table for the current salary scale(s) for this position: Represented Specialist Salary Scales. The current full time base salary for this position is $55,000 - $63,500. "Off-scale" salaries, which yield compensation that is higher than the published system-wide salary at the designated rank and step, are offered when necessary to meet competitive conditions. Percent time: 100% Anticipated start: 07/01/2026 Position duration: 1 year with the possibility of Reappointment
Application Window
Open date: April 24, 2026 Next review date:Friday, May 8, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time) Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee. Final date: Sunday, May 24, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time) Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.
Position Description
The Junior/Assistant Specialist will help Nicolas Longuet-Marx in the conduct of several of his research projects in political economy, focusing on the innovation and diffusion of policies across states over time, the drivers of political realignment, and the interaction between labor market factors and political behavior. Tasks will include data collection, data cleaning and processing, and data analysis. Duties will include: Collecting recent and historical data on American Political Economy, including, but not limited to, precinct-level election results, precinct shapefiles, general election and primary candidate websites, candidate survey data, and campaign contributions. The data will be collected from various sources, including but not limited to, Secretaries of state, county election officials, the Federal Election Commission, the US Census Bureau, and the Library of Congress. Processing the above described datasets, together with other datasets already collected by the Principal Investigators. The processing will include, but not be limited to, match precinct-level election results with their corresponding shapefiles using fuzzy-string matching, recover precinct-level demographics using GIS to obtain precincts' overlap with census block-groups, process census demographic datasets to obtain census block-group summary statistics, clean the text from candidate websites, etc. Using the datasets described above to produce summary statistics on voting behavior by precincts, and how it has evolved in the past 30 years, together with patterns on candidate polarization, and how they relate to precinct-level and district-level demographics. The research assistant will also study the correlation of these different patterns with the evolution of campaign finance laws in the US. Reviewing literature on targeted questions in American Political Economy, under the guidance of the Principal Investigators.
Qualifications
Basic qualifications(required at time of application)Bachelor's degree (or equivalent international degree) or enrolled in a Bachelor's degree (or equivalent international degree) program Additional qualifications(required at time of start)Bachelor's degree (or equivalent international degree) Preferred qualificationsPrior experience with data collection, data processing Prior experience with data analysis in Stata, Python or, R.
Application Requirements
Document requirementsCurriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V. Cover Letter Apply link:https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05349 Help contact:hsangera1@berkeley.edu
Job Location
Berkeley, CA Apply now to Junior Specialist / Assistant Specialist - Economics - Department of Economics or Log in to your portfolio Need help? Contact the hiring department. The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. You have the right to an equal employment opportunity. The University of California, Berkeley is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. See our Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act Annual Security Reports Academic Personnel Recruit University of California, Berkeley Accessibility About California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Opt-Out IconPrivacy Policy © 2007-2026 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.