Welcome to JILAEE

What is JILAEE?

JILAEE stands for "Joint Initiative for Latin American Experimental Economics". The aim of the initiative is to conduct research in the field of economics using experiments. Let's break that down a bit.

When we say that we generate research in the field of economics, we mean that we attempt to contribute to scientific knowledge in this field by producing and publishing scientific research articles. The fact that this research is conducted in the field of economics means that the topics we address in our articles relate to anything that concerns the behavior of economic agents in markets. This could be consumers, firms, or governments. Accordingly, the conclusions we draw from our research could be relevant to better understand consumer behavior, to design more efficient public policies, or to inform for-profit or non-profit organizations. For further information, see John List’s free online course on the principles of economics: https://econ4everyone.uchicago.edu/

On the other hand, what do we mean when we say that we conduct research using experiments? In short, it means that we use the experimental method to establish causal relationships between variables. For example, we might conduct an experiment to see if a certain policy (which could be implemented by a government or a company) has a causal effect on the behavior of individuals on some variable we are interested in (e.g. trust in government). To establish the causal effect, the research randomly divides all individuals into two groups. One group receives the policy, while the other does not. In general, the experimental method helps us to test the predictions of research hypotheses with real-world data. For example, we could use experiments to test for the presence of discrimination in a particular context. 

In addition to conducting research, JILAEE has another important aim. By supporting researchers to conduct research, the initiative also aims to train future capable professionals. As you might have guessed, we are not talking about anyone but you and your fellow RA's. Why should JILAEE be interested in your future career? As a research center, JILAEE is interested in attracting the best researchers from around the world, as well as the best RAs. This helps JILAEE to be at the forefront of scientific knowledge. We see your work at the initiative as a two-sided interaction: your work helps the researchers to conduct research. In turn, the researchers help you in your professional development and in starting a research career yourself, if you are interested in starting one.

• Who do you need to know

  JILAEE has different team members that you will get to know. Knowing the structure and the team members will help you to understand how things work in general, who to go to if you need help, and who might ask you to do things. The working language of JILAEE is English. 

  • Julio Elias: He is the executive director of JILAEE. He has the ultimate say in all things considering the UCEMA side of JILAEE. Although he is not the first person you should go to if you are in doubt, you can talk to him if you have general concerns or if you want his advice.

  • John List: He is the scientific director of JILAEE. He is based in Chicago, where he is a Professor of Economics. He has the ultimate say in all things considering the Chicago side of JILAEE. He is one of the most prominent figures in the field of experimental economics, as well as one of the primary people responsible for introducing field experiments into economics. Besides JILAEE, he is also the Chief economist of Walmart, and manages research teams in Australia and Saudi Arabia. As such, you will probably never interact with him, but he is worth mentioning.

  • Luca Henke and Gwen-Jiro Clochardl: they are former JILAEE's postdoctoral researchers. Until August 2025, they will be coordinating the work of the RAs, so they are the ones to talk to if you have any work-related questions, problems or doubts. Although not the only ones, they are also the main person responsible for distributing tasks among the RAs and assigning them to different projects. 

  • Carolina Bayon Echenique: She is the managing director of JILAEE. She is in charge of the administrative/logistics/hr side of JILAEE, so if you have any questions that are not related to research, you should talk with her.

  • Researchers: A team of researchers is affiliated with JILAEE. Some of them are more involved, some are less involved in ongoing projects. Those more involved are looking for research assistants for their projects, and many of our RAs are currently working with them. The ones you are sure to meet are Gwen-Jiro Clochard and Karen Ye. 

  • Visitors: These are researchers who come from universities all over the world to visit JILAEE for a certain period of time. They often come to Argentina to start new projects. While being in Argentina, they are similarly supported by the research assistants in their tasks. 

  • Research assistants (RAs): Last but not least are your work colleagues, the RAs. They form a great team and will be more than happy to help you, both during the introduction process and once you start working.  In many cases, you will also work with them to complete certain tasks.

• Your role at JILAEE

  As the name “Research Assistant” (RA) indicates, your role in JILAEE will be to assist researchers during the research process. That said, the nature of the tasks you might undertake varies quite a bit, so a comprehensive list of all of them might be impossible to gather as it will for sure miss to cover some tasks. The reason is that potential tasks strongly depend on the nature of the research project itself, and the kind of tasks you perform in a research project might be completely different from the kind of tasks you do in another research project.

  It is worth noting in advance that, typically, RAs are assigned to work on a single research project at a time,  and therefore will focus on the tasks coming just from that project. However, even within a single research project, the tasks may still vary quite a bit in their scope, requirements, and timelines. Sometimes, RAs are also assigned to support multiple projects at the same time, for example, if each individual task is just a small one. 

  That being said, the most efficient way to describe the kind of tasks an RA might be assigned is to describe how a usual research project would go about, and take note of the many instances in which an RA might be asked to collaborate. Hence, to keep it brief, in the following we describe a typical experimental research project. Although most of the research projects in JILAEE are experimental, occasionally non-experimental studies are conducted, but for the sake of simplicity, we will leave these aside. Also, the research process in reality is rarely as linear as in our explanation, but for now, we abstract from the complexity of actual research projects. 

  Any research project starts with the main researcher(s) asking themselves a research question. This could be anything, but in general, it is a question of the form: Is it true that X has an impact on Y? For example: Is it true that certain public policy has an impact on trust in the government? Once the question is clearly formulated, the researcher has to look for a way to answer it. Luckily, the academic world is vast and it is extremely likely that someone else has answered that question in another context, or at least a similar question, or has created a methodology to answer the question. Therefore, the first step in any research project is the literature review (lit review), that is, to look for already existing papers that relate to the main research question. The lit review is usually conducted by an RA. Typically, the researcher would ask the RA to recompile as many relevant papers as possible and, possibly, to make a brief summary of each of them. To do so, the researcher provides the RA with a list of features that papers need to have in order to be included in the lit review. 

   The aim of the lit review is to clarify how the research question should be answered, that is, it guides the main researcher(s) in how they should design the experiment that will try to answer the question at hand. Once this is figured out, there is usually a phase in which everything has to be set up and prepared for the experiment to be run. The kind of tasks that an RA might have to do in this phase depends greatly on the research question and the experimental design at hand. In short, the RA might be asked to do whatever the experimental design requires. Just to give an example, an experimental design might involve sending emails to accounts. This, of course, involves some preliminary work before sending the emails, such as creating the accounts, possibly looking for the mail addresses of those we want to reach out to, etc. These tasks would typically be done by an RA.

  Once everything is set up, the experiment is launched! Again, the tasks that an RA might do in this phase may vary substantially. In the example above, the launching of the experiment translates into sending out emails. In general, this phase is concerned with applying the intervention implied by the experimental design.

  Once the experiment has been launched, the data collection process begins. For our example, this would imply collecting the responses to our emails and, possibly categorizing them. In many experimental designs, the data collection process occurs simultaneously with the launching of the experiment. In our example, for instance, sending the emails and collecting the responses would occur almost at the same time. However, in an experiment to test if certain interventions aimed at improving educational results in early childhood, these two phases will occur at different times. For example, if educational results are measured through a standardized test, this might take place months after the intervention has been implemented. Moreover, one could even look at the labor market results of the intervention years after the intervention has been implemented. Again, there are many ways in which an RA can collaborate during this process.

  After the experiment has been launched and the data has been collected and recompiled, the data analysis phase begins. Although, typically, the main researcher is highly involved with this phase, the RA might be asked to work with the data. This could go from anything between data cleaning and processing to the application of techniques for statistical inference. To do these kinds of things, you will have to use different software to manage databases, such as Excel, R, Python or Stata. If you are not familiar with these kinds of tools, don’t worry, the researcher will give you all the time you need to learn to use them. Remember, one of the main goals of JILAEE is that you learn useful skills for your future professional career.

Key Information 

• RA´S Meetings

  Our RA meetings are a key part of our collaborative workflow. These meetings take place every two weeks on Mondays at 12 PM in the office and last until 1 PM. Those of us in Buenos Aires attend in person and enjoy lunch together, while the rest join virtually.

  Until August 2025, either Luca or Gwen-Jiro, will lead these sessions. The aim is for everyone to share their progress over the past two weeks, raise any questions, resolve problems, and communicate any important updates. During these meetings, researchers may present tasks related to their projects that require assistance. These tasks are assigned to RAs who either volunteer or are selected based on their availability or appropriate skills. There is a spreadsheet that contains this information, which will be mentioned later.

  The spreadsheet is an essential tool for managing our RA workflow and has two main sheets: "RA's" and "Completed Tasks".

• Spreadsheet

  The spreadsheet is a tool for managing our RA workflow and has two main sheets: "RA's" and "Completed Tasks".

  1. RA's Sheet:

  This sheet contains a detailed overview of each RA, with each row representing a different RA. The columns in this sheet are filled out by each RA and include the following information:

  • Projects: Current projects the RA is working on.

  • Tasks: Specific tasks assigned within those projects.

  • Assigned by: The person who assigned the task.

  • General Skills: The RA's general skill set.

  • Research Interests: Areas of research the RA is interested in.

  • Research "Anti" Interests: Areas of research the RA is not interested in.

  Additionally, each RA's name is color-coded to indicate their availability:

  • Blue: No tasks, able to help.

  • Yellow: Has tasks, able to help more.

  • Red: Not available.

  2. Completed Tasks Sheet:

  This sheet is used to track tasks that have been completed. Both RAs and the postdoc update this sheet to reflect completed tasks.

• Google Calendar & Slack

  Google Calendar:

  This is a shared calendar that contains the updated dates for the meetings, seminars, researcher visits and other important dates. You'll find all the upcoming events listed here. Also,you can access your meetings directly from the links provided in Google Calendar, making it easy to join them.

  Slack:

  Slack is our communication platform, where we stay connected to collaborate effectively. Here's how we use Slack:

  1. Channels: Slack organizes conversations into channels. Our most important channel is "research assistants," where both RAs and researchers gather to discuss projects, share updates, and ask questions.

  2. Direct Messages: You can also send direct messages to individuals or create smaller group chats.

  3. Notifications: you can customize your notification settings to suit your preferences and work style. This includes setting notification preferences for specific channels or conversations, and choosing the types of activities that trigger notifications. It offers a "Do Not Disturb" feature that allows you to temporarily mute notifications during specific times (weekends, off-hours). When someone mentions you in a message or conversation using "@yourusername," Slack sends you a notification 

  4. File Sharing: You can easily share files, documents, and links within Slack, making it convenient for collaborating on projects.

  Remember to use Slack primarily in English if you communicate with researchers. Feel free to reach out to anyone in the "research assistants" channel or via direct message if you have any questions or need assistance.

Helpful Information & Practical Tips

• You have the option to enjoy lunch at the faculty's bar every day. Simply sign the sheet provided by the bar staff when you arrive at the bar.

• Our office operates as a shared space, you can use not only for your tasks but also for studying or any educational endeavors you may have. We value your education and professional growth, which is why we encourage you to make the most of our resources. We encourage you to use the office. It's a place where we share ideas and work together, so let's make this space our own, where we learn and work side by side!

• You can organize your tasks according to your schedule. The working modality is off-site, allowing for flexible working hours

• We have 4 computers available, but they might be slow. Feel free to bring your own laptop if you prefer.

• Keys are available on the first floor. Remember to give them back once you leave.

• In January, the JILAEE office is closed and most RAs as well as Caro and Julio are on vacation. 

Coexistence rules:

• You’ll be given keys to the office, please don’t lose them. Return them when you stop collaborating with JILAEE.

• The office is fully equipped for everyone’s comfort so please help keep it tidy: if you use cutlery, wash it, if you use glasses please place them over the coffee table before leaving the office. Do not take anything belonging to the office outside the office, including the mate and thermo flask that belong to the office. 

• Every desk has a set of drawers that you can lock so you can keep your belongings in the drawer. It is important that you keep the corresponding keys inside the drawer when you are not using them (not every key works for every drawer)

• The office has a Coffee station, everything there is exclusive for researchers and RA’s. 

• JILAEE’s offices are meant to be a working space exclusively for researchers and RA’s. For special cases where you want someone else to also use the workspace, ask for permission from Carolina.

• We have a first aid kit that is at your disposal. If you use it (we hope you don’t need it), please tell Carolina so she can replace what you used.