General Information
Type of contract
PhD traineeship
Who can apply?
EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme
Grant
The trainee grant is €2,120 per month plus an accommodation allowance (see further information section)
Working time
Full time
Place of work
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Closing date
29.06.2021
Your team
You will join the Sector Accounts and Fiscal Statistics Section, which is part of the External Statistics and Sector Accounts (ESSA) Division in the Directorate General Statistics (DG/S). The Section has around 18 staff and is primarily responsible for developing, compiling and disseminating the euro area accounts (financial and non-financial accounts broken down by sector) and government finance statistics. It also collects, validates and disseminates related data on EU Member States and other national accounts items (e.g. GDP). Finally, it provides user services for these domains and coordinates the ECB’s contribution to the further development and harmonisation of these statistics, both at EU level and in global fora.
Your work will be in the field of financial accounts and will be closely linked to the ESSA Division’s other activities. We are currently working on several initiatives with a view to developing new financial accounts products and are in the process of migrating to a new compilation system. You will work closely with the entire ESSA team, other teams within DG/S, other ECB business areas, national central banks, Eurostat, national statistical offices and the international statistical community.
The ECB is an inclusive employer and we strive to reflect the diversity of the population we serve. We encourage you to apply irrespective of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other characteristics.
Your role
As a PhD trainee, you will:
- contribute to the development and production of distributional financial accounts for the euro area by linking microdata from the Eurosystem’s Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) with household macrodata included in the financial accounts, as well as investigating potential analytical uses;
- prepare documents for meetings of experts from national authorities;
- develop and refine methods of estimating distributional financial accounts by linking the HFCS with financial accounts data;
- enhance and maintain the software (programmed using R) that is used to produce distributional financial accounts;
- liaise with colleagues (both within the ECB and across the ESCB) who are analysing the data, in order to explain the compilation process and assist with specific investigations;
- carry out a conceptual or empirical study for presentation at an internal seminar and/or to experts from national authorities.
This position will offer excellent opportunities to gain insight into conceptual, methodological and operational work on statistics in a policy-oriented environment, while working independently under the guidance of a mentor. You will be part of a multicultural team that strives for continuous innovation to make a positive impact on the lives of European citizens.
Qualifications, experience and skills
Essential:
- a master’s degree in economics, econometrics, statistics, mathematics, social sciences or another relevant discipline, as well as at least two years of PhD studies in one of those fields;
- experience of using statistical and/or mathematical software packages (preferably involving R) and time series analysis packages (e.g. Stata or similar), as well as related computer programming experience (or, alternatively, experience of dealing with large and complex datasets, such as survey data or microdata);
- a good knowledge of the MS Office package;
- an advanced (C1) command of English and an intermediate (B1) command of at least one other official language of the EU, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Desired:
- knowledge of national accounts (financial and/or non-financial) or related economic statistics (e.g. monetary statistics or household surveys), together with experience of using such data in applied research or analysis;
- knowledge/experience of financial instruments and/or statistical methods (statistical modelling and inference, extrapolation methods, etc.);
- good drafting skills and the ability to explain complex concepts in non-technical terms.
You are curious and eager to learn, and want to further develop your ability to analyse complex information. You are keen to collaborate with others, pursue team goals and learn from other people’s diverse perspectives. You strive to know and anticipate stakeholder needs, and will signal any need for change and propose alternative solutions.
You are motivated to contribute to the ECB’s mission, to serve the citizens of the EU as a member of a public institution and to work with colleagues from all over Europe. You are keen to be part of our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the objectives of this position.
Further information
PhD traineeship of between 6 and 12 months in total, starting in September 2021.
For additional information on this specific vacancy, you can speak to Pierre Sola on +49 (0)69 1344 7993 between 16:00 and 18:00 CET on Wednesday, 2 June and Wednesday, 9 June.
Application and selection process
Further information on how to join us is available on our
website.
The recruitment process for this position will include a remote written exercise in the pre-selection phase and – if you are invited to participate in the subsequent selection phase – an online interview.
