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david_reinstein2
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Could we start a Role-Economics channel on the "EA Anywhere" Slack please? (That's the 'one slack to rule them all')

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EAecon
by Brian Jabarian
4 min read 19

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Building effective altruismCommunityEconomicsEffective altruism groupsWorkshops / Retreats / SummitsEAecon
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EAecon: Summary

I am very excited to share that my econ community-building project, EAecon, has received a major grant from CEA Events. Check out our first event, EAecon Retreat 2022. 

You can express your interest in the upcoming EAecon Newsletter, future EAecon Events and whether you would like to join a potential EAecon Online Community by emailing hello@eaecon.org.

EAecon aims to develop and reinforce the social cohesion of economists from different levels of academic seniority and EA-engagement through sharing relevant resources and online and in-person events. During our events, participants can benefit from:

  • Getting exposure to GPR/longtermist economics academic work before exploring further through the numerous more advanced early-career opportunities available at the Forethought Foundation (for instance, the Global Priority Fellowship, Summer Course in Economic Theory and Global Prioritization, Major Research Grants) and at the Global Priority Institute (for instance, the Early Career Conference Program, Prizes in GPR, Oxford Workshops on GPR).
  • Networking with economists from different levels of academic seniority and EA-engagement at the same place and matching people for collaboration (RAs/co-authors).
  • Developing their careers through dedicated mentoring introductory sessions on how to write an EA-engaged economic paper, how to apply to grad school, which EA jobs are available after your econ studies, before signing up for different coaching and supervising opportunities at Effective Thesis, the Econ Mentoring Program at GPI and office hours at 80,000 hours and the Econ Grad School Advice Slack.
  • Pitching academic, charity, and social entrepreneurship projects in EA-related economics, getting feedback from EA-engaged economists to help you prepare applications to different funding opportunities offered by EA Funds, FTX Future Fund, Open Philanthropy, Gates Foundation, Longview Philanthropy, and multiple other grant-makers in the EA space (see an overview here).

EAecon: In more details

Background

I am a Ph.D. candidate in economics at PSE writing a thesis titled "Economics of Complex Uncertainty,". On the side, I just submitted a doctoral thesis in philosophy at Sorbonne, titled "Operationalizing Normative Uncertainty". 

I am grateful to my grantmaker Ollie Base, William MacAskill, Rossa O'Keeffe-O'Donovan, and many of my EA economist friends and colleagues (in particular David, Charlotte, Ruru, Ben G., Ben T., Phil, Zach, Danny, Loren) for their support. 

Why

I got interested in EA academic topics through my Ph.D. and started interacting with EA academics based on my first-year paper. Since then, I have engaged with and benefited from the overall EA community along three main dimensions: 

  1. Building long-term connections with other EA economists, academics, and active non-academic members of the EA community.
  2. Making use of generous EA funding to explore further an academic agenda that I thought was original and useful for future generations.
  3. Freely, honestly, and openly discussing all the academic and non-academic EA topics and issues I needed to with all different types of people in the EA community.

In particular, I have been a Global Priority Fellow in Economics at Forethought Foundation (18'), a participant in the Early-Career Conference Program at Global Priority Institute (18'), an Expert at Effective Thesis, and a Mentor in the Econ Mentoring Program at GPI. 

I am about to finish my doctoral studies. I thought younger generations of aspiring economists could also benefit along these three dimensions, without having to wait until they are far advanced in their academic careers, have found very specific topics on their own that exactly match GPR and EA research areas, or are be active members of the EA social movement. Rather, I thought it would be valuable for them to connect, explore, and discuss EA-motivated research at an early stage and progress from there. 

Goals

EAecon aims to

  • reinforce the community of EA economists across EA orgs and elsewhere;
  • welcome new economists on board;
  • share job postings, career advice, and other opportunities relevant to EA economists; and
  • organize events for economics students—mainly advanced undergraduates, master's students, and early Ph.D. students—with an interest in EA.

This is what EAecon aims to provide: reinforcing the community of EA-engaged economists and welcoming new economists on board; sharing specific EA jobs opportunities and career advice for EA economists; and organizing events for advanced econ undergraduates, master's students, and early Ph.D. students. 

Learning EA-motivated Topic 

Getting exposure to GPR/longtermist economics academic work before exploring further through the numerous more advanced early-career opportunities available at the Forethought Foundation (for instance, the Global Priority Fellowship, Summer Course in Economic Theory and Global Prioritization, Major Research Grants) and at the Global Priority Institute (for instance, the Early Career Conference Program, Prizes in GPR, Oxford Workshops on GPR). 

Academic Networking & Get Matched

Networking with economists from different levels of academic seniority and EA-engagement at the same place and matching people for collaboration (RAs/co-authors).

Career Sessions & Exploring Fellowships/Jobs 

Developing their careers through dedicated mentoring introductory sessions on how to write an EA-engaged economic paper, how to apply to grad school, which EA jobs are available after your econ studies, before signing up for different coaching and supervising opportunities at Effective Thesis, the Econ Mentoring Program at GPI (introduced here), office hours at 80,000 hours and the Econ Grad School Advice Slack. 

Pitching Projects & Preparing Your Fund Application

Pitching academic, charity, and social entrepreneurship projects in EA-related economics, getting feedback from EA-engaged economists to help you prepare applications to different funding opportunities offered by EA Funds, FTX Future Fund, Open Philanthropy, Gates Foundation, Longview Philanthropy, and multiple other grantmakers in the EA space (see an overview here). 

Community Formats

I aim to develop EAecon through a hybrid format:

  • Organizing different types of physical events of different capacities throughout the year (EAecon Retreats and EAecon Meetings).
  • Launching a newsletter to diffuse relevant information regarding these four goals
  • Building an online EAecon community (if there is enough interest and resources)

Upcoming Event: EAecon Retreat 2022

Based on these goals, we are launching our first event: EAecon Retreat 2022.

 

I am grateful to Philip Trammell for his feedback on this post.  

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Peter Wildeford31
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I hope someday you organize a convention and call it EAEconCon

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benleo7
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Now I really want to call it EaE(con)^2

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Brian Jabarian8
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haha, EAEconomicsAssociation: EA^2

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Rubi J. Hudson13
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Hopefully one day they grow big enough to hire an executive assistant.

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Brian Jabarian6
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Thanks good point. On a different note, I invited David from your team to come and present which type of work economists could do at your EA org, let me know in mp or email if you or another member would like to join as well. 

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[anonymous]11
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Is there a newsletter or somewhere to subscribe for updates?

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PeterSlattery7
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Agree that a newsletter would be good. See my recent post related to that. Would also be really interested to see more topic based communities emerge.  I think it makes sense to organise communities by cause, specialisation and locality (with more granularity at scale) so keen to see more of this. Thanks for setting it up!

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Brian Jabarian5
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Ines: Thanks for your comment. Yes, it is in the pipeline: given resources and time constraints, we are currently focused on our first event, but in the google form, you can notify your interest in the upcoming EAecon newsletter and the online EAecon community.

Peter: Thank you for your support and the template; super helpful! Let's connect to know more about the BS community. 

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Jeff Kaufman 🔸11
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Exciting!

Nit: I would have found this post a little easier to read if you had moved the explanation of "EAEcon" earlier.

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Brian Jabarian4
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Thanks for your interest, Jeff and your helpful comment. I split this into 2 posts, hope it makes presentation clearer. And, here is the EAecon Sequence.

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Jeff Kaufman 🔸6
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I don't think the splitting makes it clearer sooner what EAecon is? I think it's the same ~9 paragraphs before you get to the information that your project is aimed at economists.

I wonder whether the initial "my community-building project, EAecon" might be better as "my econ community-building project, EAecon"

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Brian Jabarian6
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oh, I see; thanks! 

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Michael_Wiebe8
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Great to see this!

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Brian Jabarian4
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Thank you !

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OllieBase8
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Really excited to see this get off the ground!

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Brian Jabarian6
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Thanks for your support Ollie and the CEA Events Team! 

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david_reinstein2
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Could we start a Role-Economics channel on the "EA Anywhere" Slack please? (That's the 'one slack to rule them all')

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Ruru H3
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This is a fantastic initiative, Brian, thanks for spearheading this! Can't wait :) 

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Brian Jabarian2
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Thank you Ruru!  

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