Postdoctoral researcher in Experimental Macroeconomics
Faculty of Economics and Business – Amsterdam School of Economics
Publication date: 7 April 2015
Level of education: PhD
Salary indication: €2,476 to €3,908 gross per month
Closing date: 30 April 2015
Hours: 38 hours per week
Vacancy number: 15-110

The Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) at the UvA provides academic courses for more than 5,000 students in Economics and Business, Actuarial Sciences, Econometrics & Operations Research, Fiscal Economics, and a variety of post-doctoral courses. The Faculty also conducts research programmes in many specialist areas and has a staff of about 400 people.

The postdoctoral researcher will work in the section Mathematical Economics and Mathematics. Mathematical economics constitutes a core part of the curriculum taught in the Bachelor of Science programme Econometrics & Operations Research and of the (English) Master of Science programme Econometrics of the Amsterdam School of Economics. The section Mathematical Economics and Mathematics is part of the Amsterdam School of Economics, and currently has around 15 staff members. It includes the CeNDEF (Center for Nonlinear Dynamics in Economics and Finance) research group. CeNDEF cooperates closely with the Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision making (CREED). CeNDEF members conduct research in mathematical economics, nonlinear economic dynamics and complex systems theory, behavioral finance, experimental macroeconomics, bounded rationality, expectations and learning, etc., and teach courses in mathematical economics and mathematics.

Project description

The postdoctoral researcher will be appointed as part of the EC Horizon 2020 Framework project 'Bridging the gap: from Individual Behaviour to the Socio-tEchnical MaN (IBSEN)’. Developing models of real-world societal scenarios and systems is a key topic in the research agenda of social sciences, but is hindered by the lack of controlled experimentation with large groups of people. IBSEN aims at providing a breakthrough by building a repertoire of human behaviour in large (1000+ persons) structured groups using controlled experiments. To that end, we will develop a novel setup for large groups of people that will provide an experimental protocol, the necessary software and analytical tools to allow us to deal with thousands of people at the same time. IBSEN will apply our setup to specific research questions, focusing on novel phenomenology that may arise in large systems as compared to typical smaller ones, to find the rules that govern human behaviour in those cases, including the influence of social context and individual identity on them. We will assess our approach by building a model of human interaction in groups based on the behavioural rules we have found. The project requires a high-degree of interdisciplinarity; accordingly, the team consists of physicists, economists, social psychologists, and computer scientists. The postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam will mainly work on large scale laboratory macroeconomic experiments to test behavioral macro-financial models with heterogeneous agents.

The teaching load is 20%.

Requirements

Applicants are expected to have completed a PhD in (mathematical) economics, econometrics or a related quantitative field, and have demonstrable affinity with agent-based modelling and performing economic laboratory experiments with human subjects. Due to the application areas, there is a preference for candidates with background knowledge of macro-economics and/or finance, although this is not a strict requirement.

Further information

For information about this vacancy, please contact:
Prof. dr. C.H. Hommes or
Prof. dr. J.H.Sonnemans

Appointment

The initial appointment is for two years. Conditional on a positive evaluation and available funding, this can be followed by an appointment for one additional year. The gross monthly salary will be, depending on experience, between €2,476 and €3,908 (salary scale 10) based on 38 hours per week and in accordance with the salary scales and the collective agreement regulating employment conditions at Dutch universities. The intended start date is 1 September 2015.

Job application

Applications should be made via applications-feb@uva.nl. Please include job reference number 15-110. Applicants should send a letter of application accompanied by a curriculum vitae, a list of publications, information about relevant teaching experience and two reference letters. The closing date is 30 April 2015. Teaching a class, giving a research seminar or a Skype interview might be part of the application procedure.

http://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/working-at-the-uva/vacancies/item/15-110.html