YOUR COMMITMENT
Hours per week: 10-20 hours per week
Commitment: 3+ months
Reports to Specific Policy Director

ABOUT SPUR
The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) is one of North America's preemient urban planning and public policy organizations. Through research, advocacy and public education, SPUR promotes good planning and good government. SPUR is a member-supported nonprofit organization.

SUMMARY OF POSITION
The research assistant will help SPUR’s policy team with quantitative and qualitative research, including analysis of publicly available data sets, survey design and literature reviews. 

This position is appropriate for anyone with strong research skills who wants to understand what shapes metropolitan areas. In particular, we are looking for students of economics, planning, engineering, business, environmental science, political science, and sociology. Topics could include the following:

• Quantifying the climate impacts on various development patterns
• Identifying funding options for new transit lines
• Analyzing economic data on job and population sprawl
• Conducting comparative research on local strategies to lower the cost of housing production

• Work closely with a policy director to develop a research strategy
• Work with Excel spreadsheets to compile and develop the research
• Understand and complete data manipulation

• Interest in SPUR's issues
• Knowledge of statistics and regression equations
• Strong Research and Writing Skills
• GIS, AutoCad, Access experience is preferred