Website link here: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/569864000#new_tab

Open & closing dates

 06/05/2020 to 06/11/2020

Salary

$81,875 to $81,875 per year

Summary

This economist is a research scientist within the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station Goods, Services, and Values Program located in Portland, OR, The Program mission is to conduct and communicate research to advance understanding of relationships among people and forest and rangeland ecosystems.

For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Simon Kihia at 503-943-0183 or

simon.kihia@usda.gov

Responsibilities

  • Plans and conducts research related to understanding the preferences and effects of peoples? decisions regarding natural resources on ecosystem services with the goal of improving government policies and programs.
  • Plans and conducts both basic and applied research with a focus on the social and economic dimensions of forest management, ecosystem restoration, and/or natural and human-caused disturbance, such as wildfire and climate change.
  • Conducts research in areas such as timber markets; climate change and associated risks (e.g., wildfire); carbon policy and markets; socio-ecological resilience in rural communities; collaboration and public engagement; and public lands recreation.
  • Uses approaches that may integrate theory and methods from a number of inter-related social science disciplines, such as political science, economics, cultural geography, anthropology, and sociology, as well as biophysical and computer sciences.
  • Collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders, potentially including community leaders, land managers and policymakers, as well as other scientists to produce research that addresses the needs of natural resource managers and policymakers.
  • Participates in research that contributes to understanding the characteristics and processes of social-ecological systems at the heart of many natural resource policy and management issues.
  • Disseminates research results to peers, managers, policymakers, and others in a variety of formats including articles in refereed journals, presentations at scientific meetings and workshops, and by direct communications with users.

Qualifications

In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management’s General Schedule Qualification Standards.

Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. All transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide university course descriptions as necessary.

Basic Requirement for Economist Series (0110):

Degree: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor’s or higher degree that included a major field of study in economics that included at least 21 semester hours in economics and 3 semester hours in statistics, accounting, or calculus.

–OR-

Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in economics, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education sufficient to demonstrate possession of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform work in economics that is comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of a full 4-year course of study with a major in a field needed to perform the work of the occupation. Examples of appropriate experience to qualify in the Economics series include: individual economic research assignments requiring planning, information assembly, analysis and evaluation, conclusions and report preparation; supervisory or project coordination assignments involving a staff of professional economists, and requiring the evaluation and interpretation of economic information; or teaching assignments in a college or university that included both class instruction in economics subjects and one of the following (1) personal research that produced evidence of results, (2) direction of graduate theses in economics, or (3) service as a consultant or advisor on technical economics problems.

In addition to the basic requirement, the following specialized experience or graduate level education is qualifying:

Specialized Experience for GS-0110-12: One year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-11). This experience includes all of the following:

    • Conducting the full cycle of both theoretical and applied scientific research in economics (including identifying research topics, defining study objectives, organizing and conducting research, interpreting results, and presenting findings in the form of reports, demonstrations, manuscripts, and other appropriate technology transfer activities) as it pertains to environmental and natural resource management issues, such as forest management, outdoor recreation, forest products, ecosystem services (e.g., water, fish and wildlife habitat, air quality), wildfire, and climate change.
    • Conducting quantitative or empirical analysis and/or modeling using economic and statistical methods, such as linear and nonlinear regression models, limited dependent variable and count data models, structural equation modeling, simulations, and mathematical programming, in evaluating environmental and natural resources management issues, associated economic issues, and policy and management implications.
    • Disseminating research findings at conferences or scientific meetings and publishing results in various outlets as appropriate, including a combination of peer-reviewed journals and technical reports.

Education

Graduate Education qualifying for GS-0110-12: Conferred Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree directly related to the work of the position,which can include specialization in environmental economics, forest economics, natural resource economics, ecological economics, or other economics specialties related to natural resource management and policy. Qualifying graduate education for the GS-12 level of this position include coursework in areas such as forest management, management of natural resources, outdoor recreation, econometrics, statistics, and other human dimensions.