Postdoctoral Researcher: Evaluation of Preschool Education (0.95 FTE)

Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) has a vacancy for a postdoctoral researcher in the project EVENING: Effectstudie Voorschoolse Educatie: een Natuurlijk experiment In Nederlandse Gemeenten (Impact Evaluation Study of Preschool Education: a natural experiment in Dutch municipalities). The main tasks are contributing to the evaluation in a multidisciplinary team, analyzing registry data and data collected in the field, and writing reports (in Dutch) and academic papers. 

This multidisciplinary project is a collaboration between two departments of Utrecht University (Utrecht School of Economics and the Department of Child, Family and Education Studies) and Sardes Ltd. The postdoc will be employed at U.S.E. The project examines the impact Dutch preschool education policy for disadvantaged children (related to socio-economic status and migration background). The study is part of a comprehensive program of research into educational priority policy, initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences and funded by the Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO). The project evaluates a series of recent policy measures, including the expansion of preschool from 10 hours to 16 hours per week. The project uses Dutch education registry data (NCO) and data collected in the field (2020-2023) on children (including child development measures), families, preschools (including quality assessments) and municipality policies.  

The ideal candidate has:

• completed a PhD in economics or other social sciences. Candidates who are close to completion of a PhD are also encouraged to apply;
• experience with policy evaluation research and the application of micro-econometric techniques (such as difference-in-difference and instrumental-variables), preferably using registry data;
• affinity with education research (including education economics, labour economics, public economics);
• a good command of Dutch is a plus.