Doctoral student in Economic History - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Assigned duties

Those appointed to doctoral studentship shall primarily devote themselves to their studies, aimed to result in a doctoral degree. Work carried out during the studentship consists of participation in research projects as well as successful participation in postgraduate (third-cycle) courses. Those appointed to doctoral studentships may also work, to a limited extent, with educational tasks and administration at the Department of Economic history. However, duties of this kind may not comprise of more than 20 per cent of a full time post.

The PhD position is linked to the research project How welfare shapes our future: Policies targeted at young children and their effects over the full life course – a case study of southern Sweden, 1920 to the present day. The PhD student will work in this project in collaboration with other project members.

Eligibility / Admission requirements

A person meets the general admission requirements for third-cycle courses and study programmes if he or she has:

• Been awarded a second-cycle degree; or
• Satisfied the requirements for courses comprising of at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second-cycle; or
• Acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

(Higher Education Ordinance, Chapter 7, Section 39)

Specific admission requirements for doctoral studies in each subject are specified in the relevant general syllabus, available at https://www.lusem.lu.se/study/phd

Other requirements

A proficient level of English is required in both written and oral communication. Proficient Swedish language skills are desirable but not required.

Basis of assessment

Admittance of a doctoral student is based on an assessment of the candidate’s ability to benefit from third-cycle studies.

The applicant’s ability to benefit from third-cycle studies and research will be assessed with reference to the selection criteria stated in the relevant general syllabus for third-cycle studies, available at https://www.lusem.lu.se/study/phd

Applicant’s general competence:

• Quality and content of previous written work, such as a Master’s thesis.
• Ability to participate actively in the Department’s research environment.
• Ability to perform independent scientific work.
• Good statistical and econometric knowledge.
• Data management skills and experience in working with large individual-level databases.
• Proficiency in written and oral communication.
• Relevant educational background, for example in statistics, economics or demography.
• Other relevant experiences for third-cycle education, such as work experience.

We are interested in applicants with a strong commitment and interest in early-life exposures, interventions, life course research, quantitative analysis and working with large micro-level longitudinal databases.

Project

The project investigates the effects of the first welfare developments in Sweden targeted at mothers and young children – the institutionalization of childbirth in hospitals and child-care in day-care centres – on individuals’ wellbeing over the full life course. It uses the Scanian Economic Demographic Database, a unique longitudinal micro-level data for the city of Landskrona and five rural parishes in southern Sweden from 1905, and linked individual-level records of midwifery, hospital births, day-care enrolments and medical check-ups of infant health. Individuals are followed from birth until old age to study the effects of these welfare developments and their interaction at different stages of the individual’s life course. Various measures of socioeconomic status and health are considered as outcomes, which makes it possible to assess to what extent and through which mechanisms these policies helped reduce intergenerational social inequalities. Knowing the effects across the whole life course will allow to correctly assess the social value of the interventions.

Terms of employment

Fixed-term employment, maximum four years (fulltime studies).

Only those admitted to third-cycle courses and study programmes at a higher education may be appointed to doctoral student.

For regulations concerning employment of doctoral students etc, see the Higher Education Ordinance, Chapter 5, Sections 1-7.

For regulations concerning admission to third-cycle courses and study programs, see the Higher Education Ordinance, Chapter 5, Sections 34-41.

Application procedure

Please use Lund University job application portal when applying: http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/about/work-at-lund-university

The application must be written in English.

The application should contain:

• Personal letter in which the applicant gives a short description of him/herself and his/her research interests and its relevance for the project.
• Curriculum vitae.
• Grade transcripts.
• Master thesis or similar degree projects.
• If appropriate, documented language skills relevant for third-cycle studies.
• Other documents that the applicant wishes to submit.

The applicant is encouraged to name a maximum of two teachers or researchers who can give recommendation letters, but we do not consider recommendation letters with the application.