American Economic Association

Position Title/Short Description

Full Text of JOE Listing:

Economics Editorial Fellowship at the American Economic Association (Pittsburgh, PA)

The American Economic Association is pleased to announce the creation of the Economics Editorial Fellowship. We are looking for a candidate with demonstrated writing ability, an academic background in economics, and an interest in academic research appearing in top journals like the American Economic Review to serve as the first Economics Editorial Fellow beginning in the summer of 2017.

You will be working as a digital journalist to interpret the latest economics studies for a broad online audience, writing pieces for the AEA’s website in the style of an explainer article that might appear on FiveThirtyEight, Vox, or The Upshot.

Your job is to take highly technical academic research articles and summarize them for non-economists, drawing connections to both current events and trends in the economics profession. You will use relevant data to create static and interactive visualizations that will help build audience interest. You will also help promote recent studies on the AEA’s twitter feed by relating them to coverage in the popular press.

If you are passionate about understanding and communicating economics concepts in terms that real people can understand, this is the job for you. It is a great opportunity to build a portfolio of published work and deepen your knowledge of economics across a variety of fields. This one- or two-year fellowship is designed to be a springboard for future opportunities in journalism, economics graduate study, or both. More permanent positions may also be available.

Duties:
- Plan, research, and write highlights of articles appearing in AEA journals similar to our current series: https://www.aeaweb.org/research/ and https://www.aeaweb.org/research/charts
- Assist with hosting and producing a new AEA podcast
- Create data visualizations using software like Excel, Stata, R, JavaScript, Highcharts, and Python
- Track news coverage and help promote upcoming research on Twitter and Facebook
- Propose ideas for expanding our content offerings
- Assist with other writing, editorial, and video projects as they arise

Requirements:
- Background in economics (BA or MA in economics strongly preferred) with broad understanding of the discipline and subfields
- Ability to understand, analyze, and interpret top-flight economic research such as studies appearing in the American Economic Review is a must (you can see the latest issue here).
- Excellent writing and editing skills
- Background or experience in journalism preferred
- Plans to do graduate work in the future a plus
- Experience and comfort working with data using tools like Excel, Stata, R, JavaScript, Highcharts, and Python
-Application deadline: April 14, 2017

This is a full-time position with competitive salary and excellent benefits with an approximate start date of June 1, 2017. The position is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, although the option to work remotely is a possibility based on candidate’s skills and background.

Interested candidates should submit the following through the AEA’s JOE Network, OR to Tim Hyde at t.hyde@aeapubs.org under the subject line “AEA Economics Editorial Fellowship”:
- Brief cover letter explaining your interest in the job
- Resume or CV
- Writing sample from past work (please limit to 5 pages, the more topical the better)
- Portfolio of data visualizations you have created (optional)