Cma1752 Assistant Economist

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 258265**Salary**:

- £33,119 - £37,209**Job grade**:

- Higher Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Type of role**:

- Analytical
- Economist
- Policy
- Project Delivery
- Strategy**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 6Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- London / Edinburgh / Cardiff / Belfast / ManchesterAbout the job

**Job summary**:
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is one of the world's top competition and consumer agencies. With markets changing fast and with our responsibilities expanding, we are currently undergoing rapid business expansion, presenting new opportunities for skilled **Assistant Economists**.

Economics is at the heart of the CMA’s work. We have a number of exciting opportunities which call for enthusiastic economists keen to work on large-scale and high-profile investigations within a diverse, inclusive and international organisation dedicated to promoting competition for the benefit of consumers.

**Job description**:
As an Assistant Economist, you will have the opportunity to work on diverse cases across the full range of projects the CMA undertakes. Such cases have recently included:

- Assessing the potential impact on consumers of high profile mergers such as Facebook/Giphy and JD Sports/Footasylum;
- Taking action against drug companies accused of over-charging the NHS;
- Undertaking major market studies into the mobile ecosystems market and the children’s social care market;
- Investigating concerns over fake and misleading online reviews on certain websites.

The CMA’s responsibilities are rapidly expanding. The CMA is home to the Digital Markets Unit; a new body established by the UK government to promote greater competition and innovation in fast-moving digital markets. CMA economists also ensure the competition implications of policies are considered through the work of the Subsidy Advice Unit and the Office for the Internal Market. The CMA has also recently established the Microeconomics Unit, located at the Darlington Economic Campus, to lead economic research into competition, innovation, productivity and related issues. Assistant Economists, Assistant Econometricians and Economics Interns positions in the Microeconomics Unit will be advertised separately in early January.

You will join a committed community of economists, working in a collaborative, collegiate atmosphere. We are a very diverse team; our economists have a range of backgrounds and nationalities. You will work in agile, dedicated teams undertaking economic analysis to assess competitive effects in markets; you will be provided with structured training opportunities covering both technical, economic skills and more general training; you will also be expected to contribute to the intellectual development of the team of professional economists.

You will be ideally placed to identify and benefit from opportunities for career progression across the organisation and you will discover a working environment where there is real emphasis on working together and developing each other to deliver to high standards.

Our structured training programme, as well as the wider Civil Service training programme, provides a range of opportunities for continuous improvement and learning to develop your economic expertise including training courses, lunchtime seminars and discussion groups on economics topics. We will also support and encourage you to develop your wider skills - including communication, drafting, management skills and project management.

The CMA prides itself on being a great place to work and strives to ensure that staff have the opportunity to grow and expand their skills portfolio. As well as being a hugely rewarding, diverse and stimulating place to work, you will have an opportunity to work for the public good and to stretch and develop yourself while doing so.

**Person specification**:
Key responsibilities will include the following:

- Engage with senior economists to develop the economic analysis in their projects, including developing economic theories to explain how competition can be affected, gathering appropriate evidence (for example, drafting data or other information requests and survey questionnaires), and identifying how the economic analysis contributes to the CMA’s projects.
- Deliver high quality and timely economic analysis under the guidance of more senior economists. Responsibilities may include: carrying out industry research, compiling datasets and analysing them; critically assessing and interpreting evidence and submissions; identifying relevant academic papers or other sources of publicly available information; and forming judgments as to how the analysis can be used in an investigation.
- Communicate clearly and accurately, both orally and in writing, in particular by drafting substantial sections of worki