PhD position in the field of “Export upgrading and economic growth” (1.0 FTE)

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
The Faculty of Economics and Business offers an inspiring study and working environment for students and employees. International accreditation enables the Faculty to assess performance against the highest international standards. It also creates an exciting environment of continuous improvement. FEB's programmes, academic staff and research do well on various excellence ranking lists.

FEBRI, the graduate school and research institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business has available PhD position in the field of “Export upgrading and economic growth”

Project description
Exporting higher-quality products is positively correlated with economic development and growth. In this project, you will contribute to the estimation of export upgrading and analyse how it links to economic growth or other relevant economic variables, like employment or trade policies. The project offers thematic flexibility and several exciting opportunities under this umbrella. For example, it is possible to work with Dutch firm-level data but also with cross-country product-level trade data, or to contribute to state-of-the-art growth econometrics.

Organisation
The PhD position is embedded in the “Global Economics & Management” department of FEB’s Research Institute. The project will be supervised by Konstantin M. Wacker and Tristan Kohl. You will be part of a larger research program on the empirics of economic growth (led by K.M. Wacker) and/or trade policies (led by T. Kohl) that regularly collaborates with Dutch and international organizations, such as Statistics Netherlands (CBS) or the World Bank.

The ideal candidate is ambitious, highly motivated and wishes to make a career in research. He or she has a thorough training in research skills, speaks and writes English fluently and has obtained excellent results in the master phase.
The PhD candidate should have a background (MSc, research master) in Economics or Econometrics, preferably with a specialization in international economics, development economics, and/or applied econometrics. Familiarity with STATA or similar software packages is required; experience in managing large or complex data sets is an advantage.

The full-time appointment is temporary for a period of four years, under the condition of a positive assessment at the end of the first year. The gross monthly salary is € 2,901 which increases yearly to a maximum of € 3,707. Based on the gross salary you will receive an additional 8% holiday allowance each year in May, and an additional 8.3 % end of year bonus in December.

Starting date: Preferably per September 1, 2025.

An assessment may be part of the procedure, consisting of psychological tests, a coding exercise, and an interview.