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)
Role specialisation
Economics and Monetary Policy
Working time
Full time
Place of work
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Closing date
25.11.2020
Your team
You will be part of the Fiscal Policies Division in the Directorate General Economics. Our Division has 26 staff members assessing the national fiscal policies of the Member States of the European Union (EU) and the euro area fiscal stance, providing fiscal forecasts, as well as analysing a variety of topics such as fiscal policy and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, public debt dynamics and the interplay between monetary policy and fiscal policies. The Division is also responsible for analysing issues related to the reform of the architecture of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), in particular concerning the EU fiscal framework.
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 your gender, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability or other characteristics.
Your role
As a PhD Trainee you will participate in one of the following projects, in which you will:
- contribute to analysing the impact of fiscal policies on the macroeconomy, e.g. based on the estimation of fiscal policy multipliers, especially at the effective lower bound and in different phases of the business cycle; analysing the role of national and aggregate fiscal policies in the COVID-19 crisis, including the composition and the possible effects of the “Next Generation EU” recovery instrument; and assessing the aggregate euro area fiscal stance, in particular in view of the trade-off between sustainability and stabilisation;
- develop models and/or tools to assess the interaction between monetary policy, fiscal policy and the financial sector, including the analysis of the effects of fiscal policies on prices and of the interaction between fiscal policies and household/corporate balance sheets;
- contribute to assessing proposals for deepening EMU, including reforms of EU fiscal rules, options for a fiscal capacity for EMU, risk-sharing mechanisms, the interplay between fiscal rules and market discipline, and the implications of the introduction of a “safe asset” for EMU;
- contribute to analysing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sustainability of public finances, assessing debt sustainability risks, including the impact of population ageing and the effects of pension reforms, and exploring issues related to fiscal policy and climate change;
- develop models for forecasting fiscal variables, including models which combine data sampled at different frequencies, evaluate the impact of revisions to fiscal data and differences between real-time and revised data, and assess the determinants of forecasting errors by international institutions.
The position offers you an excellent opportunity to submit resulting papers for publication in the ECB’s Working Paper Series and academic journals.
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, finance, statistics, data science, engineering or a related field and at least two years of PhD studies in one of the same fields;
- a sound understanding of and theoretical background in macroeconomics and the economic and institutional context in which the ECB fulfils its mandate, including the role of fiscal policies in EMU;
- programming skills in quantitative software such as MATLAB, Stata, Eviews and GAUSS;
- 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:
- experience in applying structural vector autoregressions (VARs), panel VARs, global VARs, Bayesian VARs and non-linear VARs (time-varying parameters, Markov switching), and in conducting co-integration analysis;
- experience of factor models and state space/unobserved component models;
- experience in applying macroeconomic models, e.g. dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models, backward-looking or agent-based models and overlapping generation models, using DYNARE or coding own procedures;
- a publication record that covers issues falling within the Division’s field of responsibility.>
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 motivated 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 three and twelve months in total.
For additional information on this specific vacancy, you can speak to Jacopo Cimadomo (Lead Economist) on +49 (0)69 1344 5392 on weekdays between 10:00 and 12:00.
Application and selection process
The recruitment process for this position will include an online interview via WebEx.
