PhD position in the field of The evolution of corporate finance research

Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has enjoyed an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative center of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Belonging to the best research universities of Europe and joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.

Faculty of Economics and Business
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FEBRI, the graduate school and research institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business has PhD position in the field of The evolution of corporate finance research available.

Project and job description
Finance theory helps to explain how financial markets work and how to best make financial and/or regulatory decisions. Empirical finance research, in turn, studies the behavior of real-world market participants and policymakers to assess the accuracy of existing theories on the one hand and, and to inform the next generation of finance theories, on the other. However, this is a circular process, since real-world market participants and policymakers, who are themselves the object of empirical studies, have studied finance theory in business schools and follow the model’s normative implications in their decision-making. These mutual feedback effects create non-trivial dynamics in the evolution of finance research.
This project aims to deepen the understanding of this very dynamic in corporate finance, i.e., to answer questions such as why has corporate finance research evolved in the way it has? Which factors have favored the development and what are the counterfactual outcomes? Which role does the evolution of corporate finance research (and the implied behavior of policy makers and market participants) play in the occurrence of financial crises and economic uncertainty? What measures could be taken to select more favourable equilibria going forward? The project aims to answer these questions by rigorous modelling (e.g. mean field game theory, or evolutionary game theory), empirical methods, and by close study of the history and development of corporate finance as a scientific discipline.
The candidate that we have in mind for this position is someone with strong mathematical skills and genuine and demonstrable interest in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science in general, and of financial economics in particular.
The PhD position is part of a starting grant for young researchers, running in the programme Economics, Econometrics and Finance of the Research Institute of the faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen. The project will be supervised by Sebastian Pfeil, Melissa Vergara Fernández and Abe de Jong.

The minimum requirement is to have a background (MSc, MA, Research Master) in Finance, Economics, Economic History, History and/or Philosophy of Economics. We require candidates to have strong quantitative skills and aim to find students with a demonstrated affinity with history, philosophy of science, and/or sociology.

We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:

- A gross monthly salary from a minimum of € 2,901, which increases yearly to a maximum of € 3,707 for a full-time appointment.
- Based on the gross salary an additional 8% holiday allowance each year in May, and an additional 8.3 % end of year bonus in December. PhD candidates contribute 20% of their time to teaching in years 2-4.
- A temporary full-time appointment for a period of four years, under the condition of a positive assessment at the end of the first year.

Starting date: Preferably per 1 September 2025