Doctoral student in Economic History – Regional growth in the long run - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Assigned duties

Those appointed to doctoral studentship shall primarily devote themselves to their studies, aimed toresult in a doctoral degree. Work carried out during the studentship consists of participation in researchprojects as well as successful participation in postgraduate (third-cycle) courses. Those appointed todoctoral 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 percent of a full time post.

The PhD position is linked to the research project ‘Praise the people or praise the place: How culture and specialization drive long-term regional growth’. 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 creditswere 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, see the general syllabus for third-cycle studies, available at www.lusem.lu.se/study/phd.

The applicant’s ability to benefit from third-cycle studies and research will primarily be assessed on the basis of academic results from the first and second cycle.

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.
• Interest in machine learning methods and programming.
• Data management skills and experience in working with large individual-level databases.
• Proficiency in written and oral communication.
• Relevant educational background, for example in economic history, economics, geography or statistics.
• Other relevant experiences for third-cycle education, such as work experience.

We are interested in applicants with a strong commitment and interest in historical economic geography, reading historical sources, quantitative analysis and working with large micro-level longitudinal databases.

Project

This project analyses long-run causes of regional growth by analyzing and constructing databases of geo-coded individuals that span over centuries. The focus lies on individual level datasets that will be created from digitized historical sources such as from tax records, church books, population registers and probate inventories from Sweden. Part of the work will involve machine learning methods, such as automated text recognition from written historical sources.

The project will create new measures of regional specialization, inequality and culture by digging into micro-level individual data. By analyzing new long-run measures, the project will inform whether place-based factors drive selection resulting in self-reinforcing patterns, or if places have bounded identities that influence populations across generations. The results will speak to the debate about the usefulness of place-based versus individual-centered policies for long run growth.

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 beappointed 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 HigherEducation 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 researchinterests and its relevance for the project, max 3 pages.
• 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.