Macroeconomist

Role Overview

The Office of the Chief Economist at Muthoot Fincorp Ltd is seeking a Macroeconomist with strong quantitative/econometric abilities to join its growing team and contribute to high-impact projects. The role reports to the Chief Economist, offers the opportunity to collaborate and work with economists across reputed universities and research centres, and would have high visibility within the organization.

The economist will play a key role in tracking and forecasting key macroeconomic variables, producing data-driven research notes in the areas of monetary policy, gold, and credit markets, as well as in conducting causal impact assessments of the business decisions or economic developments using large scale loan-level or other micro datasets. The role requires substantial cross-division collaboration, and a candidate who is ready to own the projects.

What Will You Do

The candidate will primarily work on two broad areas under the guidance of the Chief Economist and in collaboration with data analytics, and product teams as well as regional heads.

Macroeconomics

• Track key macroeconomic variables and maintain the structured macroeconomic datasets
• Own the production of a high-quality business relevant weekly/monthly macroeconomy and credit market trackers, utilizing data from multiple agencies
• Play a key role in building regional macroeconomic forecasting frameworks using advanced predictive modeling and high frequency data
• Contribute to developing data-driven macro research notes for internal and external (media, think tanks, regulators) dissemination.
• Track regulatory changes and government announcements and map the implications for business.
• Work with data analytics and MIS teams to build dashboards for the senior management

Causal Inferencing:

The candidate will be instrumental in designing and implementing impact-assessment studies to evaluate the efficacy of the business or regulatory decisions using large-scale micro datasets, such as proprietary loan-level datasets. Examples include a study to understand how various loan product features impact the credit demand and repayment behavior or estimating the efficacy of a particular RBI policy on the credit demand/supply.

• Work closely with data analytics to query and prepare the internal datasets
• Query and prepare external datasets, including cleaning.
• Work closely with product teams in designing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and estimate the efficacy of interventions.
• Build and estimate models to quantitatively measure the impact of business decisions using panel data methods and causal inference techniques such as Difference-in-Differences (DiD), Instrumental variables (IV), and Regression Discontinuities (RDD).
• Contribute to writing the reports for internal and external stakeholders, including regulators to disseminate the findings of the impact assessment studies

What Skills You Bring

• Strong command of applied econometrics, panel data methods, causal inferencing techniques
• Solid understanding of Indian macroeconomy including regional trends and patterns
• Strong coding skills in Python and STATA is a must
• Knowledge of building macroeconomic time-series and forecasting models, including Machine Learning techniques such as Random Forest and ability to write Python Scripts to implement these models.
• Ability to handle large datasets and familiarity with SQL queries
• Ability to read and interpret academic economics and finance papers
• Demonstrated ability in writing economic research notes/reports and presentation skills
• Collaborative skills, ownership attitude

Who Should Apply/Requirements

• A masters (MA/MSC) in economics / finance or data-analytics (with exposure to rigorous econometrics) or related field from a top-tier school in India or abroad.
• 1-2 years relevant work experience in economic research teams or top-tier universities as a Research Associate (RA). However, candidates close to completing their post-graduation are encouraged to apply.