◆ Economics

What an impact evaluation associate
really does.

16 tasks, each one witnessed by the sources that watched the job — and behind every one, a prompt you can use tonight.

16evidenced tasks
2,260in the US (2025)
$106,030median pay / year
8systems it runs on
See the 16 tasks ↓Open in the atlasThe full career map →
This is what one task looks like here
Analyze patterns of social interaction
Map interaction patterns from the recent social network survey: clean …3 sources agree

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The work, task by task

16 tasks
Grow the practice8
Research social behaviour+
Conduct a literature and field review to characterise social behaviours in the target community: compile coded themes from interviews and surveys, run basic frequency and cross-tab analyses, and summarise three behaviour drivers with implications for interventions.
escojdwiki3 agree
when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed. Helpful?
Research social stratification, class, and mobility+
Map existing literature and household survey datasets on class, caste, and income over three decades, extract indicators of status and mobility, run descriptive and inequality analyses, and draft a two‑page memo of trends and gaps for the senior evaluator by Wednesday.
wiki
when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed. Helpful?
Utilize the phenomenological method in research+
Design and execute a small phenomenological study: recruit eight purposive respondents, conduct in‑depth interviews focusing on lived experience of social status, code transcripts for themes, and deliver a 1,200‑word interpretive report with verbatim excerpts by next Friday.
wiki
when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed. Helpful?
Collaborate with research workers in other disciplines.+
Set up a working group with the health economist, the qualitative field lead Amina Hassan, and the GIS analyst Javier Torres to co-design the mixed-methods protocol, schedule two joint workshops in week of August 3, and circulate the draft protocol for comments by August 10.
jdonet2 agree
when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed. Helpful?
Direct work of statistical clerks, statisticians, and others who compile and evaluate research data.+
Assign the data clerks and statistician Priyanka Mehta to clean the baseline datasets, give Priyanka the harmonisation rules and have clerks reconcile missing IDs by Wednesday, then send me the cleaned master file and a short discrepancy log on Friday.
onet
when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed. Helpful?
Draw conclusions from research data+
Analyse the trial endline dataset, produce a concise results brief with effect sizes and confidence intervals, write a 600-word conclusions section linking findings to program theory, and deliver the brief plus tables to the PI by Thursday noon.
jd
when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed. Helpful?
Source appropriate research participants+
Compile a recruitment list for the qualitative study: pull participants meeting age and enrolment criteria from the sampling frame, contact community liaison Fatou Ndiaye to verify availability, and deliver a vetted list of 60 names with contact details by Friday.
jd
when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed. Helpful?
Stay updated with latest research findings+
Scan recent peer-reviewed journals, policy briefs, and working papers on education and health impact evaluations from the last six months, extract key findings and citations, and compile a two-page annotated summary for Monday's team meeting.
jd
when the reply comes backPush once: ask it to sharpen the weakest part, and to say what it assumed. Helpful?
Hands on the work6
Work with people1
Watch and assess1

What the work runs on

named inside the evidenced tasks
7 tasksIBM SPSS Statisticsperforms network metric calculations and statistical testing on interaction datasets
6 tasksMicrosoft Excelto build sampling frames, field schedules and manage instrument lists with basic validationOpen its task library →
3 tasksMicrosoft Outlookscheduling meetings, sending invites and tracking RSVPs
2 tasksMicrosoft Wordto draft the narrative summary and recommendations for stakeholdersOpen its task library →
2 tasksMicrosoft PowerPointprepare lecture slides and in-session exercises for a classroom seminar
1 taskESRI ArcGISoptional for spatially mapping interactions where location data matters
1 taskMicrosoft Officeprepares interview guides, records transcripts, and composes the interpretive report for the study
1 taskMicrosoft Accessto build and manage a relational database, run joins, and enforce ID consistency across large tables
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The same task, four heights

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ExecuteDo today's task, with fewer mistakesyou are here → ImproveMake it easy for the next person to acceptin the atlas → DecideWork out the right move when it is unclearin the atlas → BecomeLearn the pattern so it stops coming backin the atlas →

Can AI actually do this job?

the honest answer

It can

where it genuinely helps
  • Explain the theory behind the work
  • Draft, tidy and structure your writing
  • Rehearse a hard conversation before you have it
  • Build a study plan that fits your gaps

It cannot

where it stops, completely
  • Be in the room where an impact evaluation associate actually works
  • Carry the responsibility when the call is wrong — that weight stays yours
  • Notice what no one wrote down: the hesitation, the thing left unsaid
  • Live with the outcome

What the work pays

two countries, two different measures

United States

this exact occupation · BLS 2025
  • $106,030 a year — the middle: half earn more, half earn less
  • The lowest tenth earn near $65,160; the top tenth near $172,550
  • 2,260 people employed in this occupation

India

the occupation GROUP, not this job · PLFS via ILOSTAT 2025
  • ₹38,298 a month — the median for Professionals, the group this work sits in
  • India publishes pay by broad occupation group, so this covers many jobs besides this one. It is a shape, not a salary.
read this carefullyThese two numbers are not comparable and must not be converted into each other. One is a yearly figure for this job alone; the other is a monthly figure for a whole family of jobs. What travels between them is the pattern, not the amount: experience lifts pay almost everywhere.

Where the evidence lives

open any of it yourself
O*NETThe US Department of Labor's own record of this job5 of these tasks ESCOThe European skills and occupations register1 of these tasks Job descriptionsReal postings, in the wild12 of these tasks WikipediaHow the world describes this work7 of these tasks US Bureau of Labor StatisticsPay and employment, by occupation2025 figures UK NOS SFJPDPS2.7.2Carry out policy evaluation researchnational standard UK NOS ASTSH1Analyse and evaluate research data within a housing environmentnational standard

Close to this work

12 nearby
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Questions people actually ask

You spend time designing and running evaluations for programs and policies. Morning might mean checking emails in Microsoft Outlook, reviewing data collection plans, and briefing field teams.

Afternoons often involve cleaning and analyzing data in IBM SPSS Statistics or Microsoft Excel, meeting collaborators from other disciplines, writing draft findings in Microsoft Word, and preparing slides in PowerPoint for a conference or stakeholder meeting.

Start with Microsoft Excel for cleaning and managing datasets and with IBM SPSS Statistics for core statistical analysis; both are used daily. Learn Microsoft Word and PowerPoint for writing reports and presenting results.

If your work maps outcomes by location, add ESRI ArcGIS. Microsoft Access helps with large databases, and Outlook is standard for communication.

Use AI for drafting text, generating code snippets for SPSS or Excel, and summarizing literature, but always check outputs against raw data and original papers. AI can hallucinate numbers or methods, so verify every statistic and procedural step yourself.

Don’t use AI to decide who to recruit for studies or to interpret participants’ responses without human review, because that risks bias and ethical problems.

Take introductory statistics, research methods, and at least one course in sociology or public policy to understand social behaviour and program logic. Learn SPSS and Excel through class labs or online courses with hands-on exercises.

Courses in GIS (ArcGIS), database management (Access), and a practicum in program evaluation or a research assistant role will make your resume much stronger.

Compared with a sociologist, an Impact Evaluation Associate focuses more on program evaluation and policy analysis—measuring whether an intervention works—rather than teaching or theoretical research. You still research social behaviour and stratification, but with experimental or quasi-experimental methods.

Compared with a data analyst, you’ll do more study design, recruit participants, and interpret social outcomes. You also manage field teams and may direct statistical clerks and others who compile data.

Clear report writing in Microsoft Word and slide building in PowerPoint; many candidates can run regressions but fail to explain results simply to program managers. Practical skills in sourcing appropriate research participants and coordinating fieldwork are often missing.

Also learn to manage large-scale databases (Microsoft Access or Excel with good practices) and to supervise clerical staff who compile and clean data—those management tasks matter as much as analysis.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 2025, there were about 2,260 employed in this occupation with a median annual wage of $106,030. The lowest tenth earned $65,160, and the top tenth earned $172,550, per BLS 2025 data.

Use those BLS figures as a guide—actual pay varies by employer, location, and experience, and this role’s pay can change if you move into senior evaluation, policy, or management positions.