American Institute for Economic Research

“As a graduate research fellow, I was welcomed at AIER by a pool of staff, fellows, and interns who accomplished a balance between intellectual passion, persistent work ethic, and relaxed community as though it was second-nature. Days at work were filled with exposure to novel research and advocacy work by staff and visitors, while lunches and evenings were filled with decompressed fellowship with the opportunity to share unique insights and quirky humor. The experience smoothly facilitated a dive into some of the more unique aspects of economics, philosophy, and politics with a principled respect and emphasis, but also an openness and serious consideration of a diversity of views. The organization stuck by me and was supportive through my research and personal hurdles of the summer, and I've ultimately been able to bring stronger methodological rigor to my current dissertation work as a result of the lessons learned and feedback shared. An additional unique highlight of the experience was how AIER broadened my outlook on academic work with both training in primary research for academic audiences, and support in learning to communicate research insights to more general audiences for policy, journalistic, and non-profit endeavors. ”

“I appreciated how they've created a culture of discussion and learning. Questions were encouraged and they were totally fine if people had differing opinions. I also appreciated how independent our work was. Instead of working as a research assistant to one of the scholars, I got to choose my own research project. So I got to do something I was interested in but could talk to any of the AIER staff if I needed help or got stuck on whatever I was working on. ”