Cover Letter for Economist Teaching Position at Liberal Arts Colleges

With the job market coming up, me giving a talk to a great group of faculty and development students at Williams Higher last week, and seeing a plan for the contempo LACDEV conference, I thought it might be interesting to learn a fleck about life every bit a development economist at a liberal arts college. I asked iv faculty at different schools for some thoughts, thinking I might become two to agree, but was very pleased to get first-class insights from all iv. They noted at that place is considerable heterogeneity among liberal arts colleges, so I am delighted we can share these different viewpoints. I am therefore breaking this upwards into two posts, with the second post tomorrow.

Today'due south guests are Kartini Shastry (left), an associate professor of economics at Wellesley Higher, and John Maluccio (right), professor of economics at Middlebury Economic science (who notes he crowd-sourced also from his other development colleagues at Middlebury).

What are some of the differences or possible challenges of doing evolution research at a liberal arts higher compared to a research university?

Kartini Shastry: Liberal arts colleges offer economists a different residual of teaching and research than traditional enquiry universities. My educational activity load at Wellesley, 2-2, is non uncommon among enquiry universities but there is more faculty-student interaction (during function hours, for example) and promotion decisions weigh teaching quality more than those at inquiry universities. That said, research productivity is a critical component of promotion decisions. In the economics department at Wellesley, we take into account the greater teaching-related demands on faculty fourth dimension by trying to emphasize research quality, but accepting that we may write fewer papers than we would at an institution where didactics was weighted less. We strive not to sacrifice quality; my development colleagues take publications at height-tier journals, including the American Economic Review , Review of Economics and Statistics, and Applied Economics Journal: Practical Economics. Another attribute of enquiry requirements at small liberal arts colleges that helps account for the effort spent on teaching is that having a 'top five' publication is non unremarkably necessary for tenure. I establish that this freed me to focus on doing high quality research that contributes to the literature without the feet induced by worrying that I should ditch projects that were not 'top five' cloth.

A critical input to research productivity is exchanging ideas with other researchers.  Since pocket-size liberal arts colleges are, well, "minor," 1 may non take a large array of colleagues with similar interests on campus, or nearby. Ane may need to exist a petty persistent to get invited to requite seminars, or be on briefing panels. On the flip side, at that place is a customs developing amid researchers at minor liberal arts colleges, manifesting itself most formally in the annual Liberal Arts Colleges Evolution Economic science Briefing (LACDEV). I accept establish this conference to be a supportive and productive venue to present piece of work, discuss others' work and meet potential co-authors.

An obvious difference betwixt working at a small liberal arts college and a research university is that we don't accept PhD students. This has some disadvantages, but also some advantages. Non having admission to PhD students every bit research assistants and a source of fresh ideas are probably the biggest disadvantages, but teaching and advising graduate students places non-footling demands on faculty time at research universities. Personally, a related blessing for me is that I have fantastic senior colleagues at Wellesley who have had time and energy to mentor me and read my papers, which they may not have had if they were also responsible for graduate students.

So far, I've discussed differences that are of import, but non particularly field-specific. Equally an applied micro/development economist, evaluating natural experiments using publicly available information or even collecting data in the field, for example, from secondary sources feels no different at a liberal arts higher than information technology would elsewhere. Being at a liberal arts higher does make managing field experiments more challenging, however. Teaching both semesters means I'g non free to spend weeks in developing countries during much of the year; and buying out courses frequently is not common. (That said, many small liberal arts colleges accept generous junior get out policies.)

John Maluccio: Seems fair to say that keeping upwards with the literature is more challenging at LACS with typically greater pedagogy responsibilities. In our department, some faculty form small reading groups for this purpose. Another arroyo is through your classes where y'all tend to have a lot of latitude, precisely because you lot are not training PhDs. While few of teach pinnacle journal papers at a technical level, all of us teach seminal papers (eg. in senior level Econ Development survey-type courses), putting the emphasis on the big questions asked and broad strategies used to respond, and relatively less attention paid to how the standard errors were calculated. Varying the papers each year provides an opportunity for you lot to study of import papers more carefully.

If yous're keen to work with graduate students, advise PhD theses and take a high-level weekly seminar on evolution, then it is true that nearly LACs are non your best fit. For some, it is possible to occasionally advise PhDs at other universities, which tin exist both valuable to the faculty member and is valued by the institution as service to the profession.
Information technology was indeed recognizing some of the challenges of staying connected and soliciting critical feedback, more salient in smaller departments with less potential interaction with other development economists, that led several assistant professors from a ready of LACs (see website for list) to begin the Liberal Arts Colleges Development Economics Briefing (LACDEV) begun five years agone at Amherst. Middlebury was non office of the initial organizing group simply the conference has certainly benefited our department and has led to a number of fruitful collaborations.

Enquiry expectations are heterogeneous across LACs, but ane characteristic that may be appealing to some development economists is about by default they tend to value inquiry beyond different fields; ane typically demand non publish merely in mainstream economics journals. For instance, during my tenure review it was clear to me that some of the papers valued by my department were those published in public health. As publication outside your specialty is valued (but non required), at that place is also less of a need to distinguish yourself as the world'due south skillful in a unmarried topic. I believe this has allowed many of united states of america to broaden our research interests in ways that may non take come equally easily in a inquiry establishment.

Teaching responsibilities certainly depend on the size of your section, but in larger ones like Middlebury we are able to specialize. Typically, a kinesthesia member volition teach something in the core (eg. metrics or micro/macro theory) and then one or two preps in their area of interest. Particularly at the upper levels, given the liberal arts mission, there is scope to blueprint courses that volition be appealing both to students and to the faculty fellow member and allow you to read/acquire/etc in areas of involvement to you. These courses tin can also let y'all to refine your own thinking on "big picture" important questions.
Didactics loads differ, at Middlebury information technology is approximately 2-2 1 year and 3-2 the next. That said, with specialization this almost never translates into as many preps, though that can be possible in smaller departments. What is true is grade sizes will almost certainly be smaller – and class date more intense, possibly in class and probably exterior class. Indeed a metric considered in assessment of kinesthesia at Middlebury is "teaching outside the classroom" a broad construct that includes advising or other engagement of students outside the lecture hall (including RA work). Actively, and deliberately, thinking well-nigh best practices in teaching is also important.

How have yous managed to overcome some of these challenges, and what are some of the boosted advantages or ways being at a liberal arts college has helped you as a development economist?

Kartini Shastry: Personally, I have tried to bargain with this challenge by working with co-authors at inquiry universities who recruit their graduate students and by relying on total-fourth dimension research assistants working at places like J-PAL or IPA. These strategies take worked to some degree, in that I accept managed a few field experiments; but hither the numbers game may be a bigger problem – if a fraction of field experiments get published, working on only a few tin be risky. Earlier tenure, I followed a mixed strategy – managing field experiments, while as well exploiting natural experiments.

I would be remiss if I did non annotation that the undergraduates at Wellesley and other modest liberal arts colleges are intelligent, difficult-working, and artistic. Our top students are just a yr or two shy of attending top-tier graduate programs in economics. These students can sometimes substitute for graduate students as research assistants and co-authors. Many of my colleagues and I have published papers co-authored with our students in peak journals – for case, Pinar Keskin and I published joint piece of work with Helen Willis 'xiv (currently a graduate student at Berkeley) in the Review of Economics and Statistics (see Levine, McKnight, and Heep, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 2011 and Frydman, Hilt and Zhou, Journal of Political Economy 2015 for more than examples of papers joint with Wellesley undergraduates). Going beyond research productivity, teaching smart, engaged undergraduates tin exist fun and rewarding.

John Maluccio: At Middlebury, there are resources for research that permit a reasonable amount of travel and roofing the costs of educatee RAs, but funding for larger projects must typically exist sourced from exterior grants. We have a grants office offering valuable support, but it is fair to say that more of the logistics of grant submission are the responsibility of private faculty members. Notably, some granting organizations give extra points for LACS, in particular the NSF RUI (Research in Undergraduate Institutions) program.

Every bit a highly selective LAC, Middlebury also has an ample supply of vivid undergraduates bringing various skills (eastward.g., linguistic communication, CS, GIS, bones econometrics but typically non high level feel with data or modeling) eager to gain research skills. In assessments, the college particularly values when working with RAs leads to substantial training or joint publications.

With the unlike barriers to organizing large new research projects in listen, a model that I have found useful, in particular in the context of our thesis program, has been to engage colleagues from other institutions involved in new projects and pose the post-obit question. Are you working on a project for which there are perhaps some (high risk) secondary research questions you'd similar to explore, merely realistically won't have time to? With guidance, allow's paw the data and question to an undergraduate to play around with for a term and see where it goes. If the projection goes nowhere, information technology remains a valuable thesis project – which is mainly well-nigh process and learning. If it seems to have legs to get forward, then I explore with the colleague whether to consider coauthoring an extension.

Like many other LACs, Midd offers a pre-tenure year-long breather in part recognition of the difficulty of carrying out enquiry during teaching years. Combined with summers, this enables many of united states to spend substantial time in the field at detail points.

Any communication for development economists on the job market because liberal arts colleges as a identify to apply to/accept upwards a job offering at?

John Maluccio: Do your enquiry on the department, certainly before ASSA and even improve before preparing your cover letter. Understanding some of the chief characteristics of the academic setting of a place and some of its people (e.yard. for Middlebury the feature that we have a 4-week winter term during which faculty can teach or that we have big joint programs with other departments) tin can aid you retrieve about and frame your response to an inevitable question almost what grade yous'd like to design and teach. This is a question taken seriously. The blazon of annotate that would non be viewed favorably in a cover letter of the alphabet, for example, is something like "I look forward to working with graduate students."

Call up about your job market presentation every bit an opportunity to showcase your potential teaching skills, i.e., demonstrate you would exist a good teacher. Typically, the audience will include undergraduate students as well as non-economist administrators. This doesn't hateful pitching only to them (you could lose the interest of the department) merely thinking nigh how to appeal to a full general audience is valuable.

Kartini Shastry: If yous are interested in a chore at a small liberal arts college, you need to signal that you're actually interested. We are wary of hiring someone if we don't think the candidate is going to exist happy and stay. So you need to point that yous would exist happy with that school'south specific residuum of teaching and research. If y'all're considering whether to have a task offer, you'll want to think about whether you actually would be happy with that balance. Personally, I actually enjoy educational activity the very talented, engaged young women at Wellesley and I appreciate the fact that the effort I put into both teaching and research is seen and valued.

Look out for part ii's mail tomorrow, where we hear from Jessica Hoel and Tahir Andrabi

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Source: https://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/doing-development-economics-liberal-arts-college-part-one