Research Agricultural Economist

**Duties**:

- Identifies high-priority research topics, forms and leads research teams, initiates and conducts research to fill critical gaps and addresses policy-relevant questions, and facilitates the development of data resources to meet research objectives.
- Analyzes determinants of productivity, employment, and wage growth in agriculture and food industries.
- Serves as a key technical advisor to policy makers on economic theory and empirical research related to the contribution of agriculture and food industries to the US economy.
- Interprets and writes results for a variety of peer-reviewed publications.
- Applies econometric methods or simulation techniques to address research objectives, where the method used is tailored to the specific research question and data available.

**Requirements**:
**Conditions of Employment**:

- You must be a US Citizen or US National.
- Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.
- Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
- Successful completion of one-year probationary period, unless previously served.
- Direct Deposit: Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.

**Qualifications**:
Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.

**Basic Requirements**
A. Degree: A bachelor's (or higher) degree in economics that included at least 21 semester hours in economics and 3 semester hours in statistics, accounting, or calculus;
**OR**
B. Combination of education and experience -courses equivalent to a major in economics, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

**AND**

In addition to the basic requirement above, all applicants must meet the following minimum qualifications:
**GS-13**
**Specialized Experience**: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-13 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-12 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience conducting economic research relevant to the role of agriculture and food industries in rural economic development or farm businesses; proposing research approaches and methods for testing hypotheses to include use of scientifically appropriate economic theory, relevant data, and appropriate empirical methods; and using economic models in applied work.

**GS-14**

**GS-15**

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

**Education**:
Please see above for education qualification requirement information.

**Additional information**:

- Recruitment or Relocation Incentive may be authorized. Final determination to pay an incentive will be made by the hiring official at time of job offer.
- Selections made under this authority will be processed as new appointments to the civil service. Current civil service employees would therefore be given a new appointment to the civil service.
- If you are selected for a position with further promotion potential, you will be placed under a career development plan, and may be non-competitively promoted if you successfully complete the requirements and if recommended by management. However, promotion is neither implied nor guaranteed.
- This position may be eligible to telework up to four days per week, based upon the duties of the position. This position may also be eligible for flexible work arrangements as determined by agency policy and any applicable collective bargaining agreements.
- Travel and relocation expenses will not be paid by the Department of Agriculture. Any travel, transportation and relocation expenses associated with reporting for duty in this position will be the responsibility of the selected employee.
- This position is covered by a Bargaining Unit Agreement.
- Research Economists have open-ended promotion potential. Research accomplishments & their impact on the duties & responsibilities of positions are evaluated periodically. The grade level is limited only by the individual's demonstrated a