Job Description

Description

Job Title: CURI Academic Year Student Researcher

Classification: Student Employee (non-exempt)

Name and Address of Employer: St. Olaf College 1520 St. Olaf Ave Northfield MN 55057

If the position requires the student to work off campus provide the name and address here:

Department Name: CURI

Unit Number (5 digits): 16118

Length of Position: See Employment Authorization

Contact Person/Supervisor: Faculty advisor

Wage Range: $11.75-12.75

Description of the Position: (Purpose of the Position): Students work together with a faculty member on scholarly or artistic projects.

Project Title: What level of affluence can the Earth sustain

Faculty Mentor: Seth Binder

Project Description: This project builds on previously published research that originated as a CURI project. We aim to create a highly generalized model of a global economy in a long-run steady state. The core premise is to utilize a neo-classical general equilibrium modeling framework modified to reflect absolute scarcities and fundamental technological limits in the spirit of the ecological-economic approach. The model will enable us to assess trade-offs in per-capita economic well-being versus population at different levels of technology and alternatively to assess the economic impact of changes in technology or climate holding population constant. Our core underlying question is: How big can the economy get sustainably Ideal student collaborators will have: avid interest in the intersection of economics and environmental studies; the willingness and ability to work both collaboratively and independently at different times; demonstrated analytic and computational skills (experience with Python R or Matlab is a plus); a desire to engage in various aspects of the research process from literature review to data management from coding to writing; and the patience and curiosity to learn new research methods (including those utilizing AI) from and *with* their research mentor.

Requirements: Candidates should have taken ECON 121 and ECON 260. Candidates with previous experience on a collaborative research project with faculty are preferred.
Contact: Prof. Seth Binder binder@
Start date: Monday February 5 2026
End date: Friday May 13 2026

Transferable Skills: Research and presentations.

Duties and Responsibilities: Each project has its own timing (number of hours per week and number of weeks) as determined by the individual faculty mentor. See the CURI Digital Olaf databasefor individual project descriptions and details.

Qualifications: (Education/Experience/Skills) A student interested in applying for the CURI academic year program must be enrolled as an on-campus St. Olaf student. There is no GPA requirement that must be met in order to apply for the program but a students academic record will be considered during the selection process. Skills are dependent on individual projects.

If you dont have a work award and select No to the application questions your application will be automatically rejected by the system. If you apply and are rejected please contact Erin Eltonga to resolve this for you.

This job description is for general information purposes. It is not intended to list all duties and responsibilities of the job description is subject to change at any time by St. Olaf College with or without prior notice.

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