Doctoral student in Economic History

Doctoral student - Greenspace Across the Life Course: Inequality, School Outcomes, and Later Health

Lund University School of Economics and Management is one of eight faculties within Lund University. More than 4 000 students and 450 researchers, teachers and other staff are engaged here in training and research in economic history, business administration, business law, informatics, economics, statistics, and research policy.

Lund University School of Economics and Management is accredited by the three largest and most influential accreditation institutes for business schools: EQUIS, AMBA and AACSB. Only just over 100 business schools in the world have achieved this prestigious Triple Crown accreditation.

The Department of Economic History is a research-intensive department that employs about 80 people: researchers, teachers, technical/administrative staff, and Ph.D. candidates. The department has a large PhD programme and co-ordinates three international Master programmes. The Department has a well-established reputation for wide-ranging research with an emphasis on long-term processes, and with economic theory and quantitative methods as important methodological tools. Strong research areas at the department include economic growth and structural change, innovation, energy and sustainability, development economics, and economic demography, as well as financial history and education and the labour market. More information is available at the Department’s website: www.lusem.lu.se/ organisation/department-economic-history.

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 more than 20 per cent of a full-time post.

The PhD position is linked to the research project " Greenspace Across the Life Course: Inequality, School Outcomes, and Later Health". The PhD student will work within this project in close collaboration with other project members and be part of an interdisciplinary research environment with expertise in economic history, economic demography, GIScience, and environmental science

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/research/doctoral-studies.

Other requirements

A proficient level of English is required in both written and oral communication. Documented quantitative skills are required.

Experience in statistical programming, data management, and working with register data or large micro-level longitudinal databases is a merit. Experience in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), geocoded data, and spatial analysis is a strong merit.

Experience in remote sensing, working with historical maps, orthophotos, or satellite imagery is 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 https://www.lusem.lu.se/research/doctoral-studies.

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.

• 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 knowledge of statistics, econometric methods, and quantitative analysis.
• Experience of, or strong interest in, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), spatial analysis, and working with geocoded data.
• Experience in data management and working with large individual-based or longitudinal databases.
• Experience of, or strong interest in, historical microdata, register data and life cycle analyses.
• Experience working with historical maps, orthophotos, satellite data, or other geospatial data sources is considered a merit.
• Experience in remote sensing or geospatial machine learning is desirable but not required.
• Proficiency in written and oral communication in English.
• Relevant educational background, for example, in economic history, economic demography, economics, statistics, geography, GIScience, or related disciplines.
• Other relevant experiences for third-cycle education, such as research assistance or advanced analytical work in a research or policy environment.

Applicants should have a strong interest in studying how greenspaces, spatial inequality, and local living environments affect school outcomes and health across the life course, and should be able to combine a perspective from economic history with quantitative and spatial methods.

Project

The aim of the project is to investigate, from a life-course perspective, how exposure to greenspace around the home, at school, along routes to and from school and work, and at the workplace is associated with social inequality, school outcomes, and later-life health.

The project combines historical microdata for Landskrona, 1892–1967, geocoded at the block and address levels, with modern geocoded Swedish register data, 1968–2023, and high-resolution geospatial data. Using historical maps, orthophotos, and satellite imagery, the project develops measures of greenspace over time, which are then analysed using quantitative longitudinal and spatial methods.

The PhD student will contribute to the empirical and methodological development of the project, for example, through research on inequality in access to greenspace, the relationship between greenspace and school outcomes in both historical and modern periods, and the long-term relationship between childhood environments and later-life health. The project is interdisciplinary but clearly rooted in economic history through its focus on long-term processes, inequality, education, and health.

Terms of employment

Fixed-term employment, maximum four years (full-time 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: Work at Lund University | Lund University

The application must be written in English.

The application should contain:

• Personal letter in which the applicant gives a brief description of him/herself and his/her research interests and its relevance for the project, maximum 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 provide the names of a maximum of two teachers or researchers who are willing to provide references and the department can contact, but recommendation letters should not be included in the application.

Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We regard gender equality and diversity as a strength and an asset.