What first attracted you to IFS?

What attracted me to IFS was its reputation for rigorous, politically impartial economic research. A second attraction was that the institute is not focussed purely on academic research: research is done on a range of public policy issues and disseminated in a way that is understandable by the press and the general public.

Which projects are you working on at the moment?

I am working on a project where we are trying to identify the effect of family size on education choices in poor families in rural Mexico. A second project is the evaluation of a randomly assigned reproductive health intervention in rural Malawi.

What kind of things do you do during a typical day at work?

A typical day at work would start off with a brief meeting with the senior researcher supervising me on the project I'm working on that day. We discuss the status of the project and plan out the day's work. This could include reading related research, learning econometric techniques, or analysing data using STATA. On some days I attend research seminars at the IFS, UCL or LSE.

What do you particularly enjoy about the job?

My work is focussed on developing countries, a group that I find very fascinating. I enjoy applying economic and econometric techniques to understand various aspects of poverty and thereafter formulating the best ways of alleviating this poverty.

How has your career progressed so far at IFS?

I have only been at IFS for 9 months, yet I've learnt an immense amount already.

What have you learned from working here?

The key thing I have learnt so far is how to do research: this includes developing ideas, finding and working with large data sets, identifying the best techniques to use, writing papers and presenting research.

How would you describe the working environment?

The working environment at IFS is fairly relaxed. Everyone is very friendly and willing to help you. There is a flat structure here, and senior staff are very accessible and willing to discuss your research. Furthermore, there are internal workshops and seminars, where we present our research for feedback. All this put together makes the working environment at the IFS very conducive to good research.