PhD scholarship in Behavioral Economics at the Department of Economics

The Department of Economics at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Odense invites applications for a fully funded Ph.D. scholarship in the field of Behavioral Economics.

The PhD position is funded by Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research (SDC). The duration of the PhD position is three years, including a research stay in China for 12 months.

The starting date is flexible, but we hope to welcome our new colleague on 1 September 2023 and no later than 31 December 2023.

Job description

The successful candidate will conduct research in behavioral economics and will be involved in a research project on Decision-Making under Uncertainty. The research project will investigate how behavioral factors, such as emotions, affective states, cognitive abilities, personalities, social preferences, culture, influence decisions under risk and uncertainty. The candidate will be responsible for data collection using lab and online experiments, and possibly using computational simulation. The student is also expected to conduct independent, single-authored work. The successful candidate will contribute to high-quality research and undertake teaching and supervision at the undergraduate and graduate levels in economics.

The PhD student will be supervised by Associate Professor Huanren Zhang, with the support by the Sino-Danish research networks including scholars from Denmark and researchers from top Chinese Universities. Information about the PhD program at the Faculty of Social Sciences and at the Department of Economics, University of Southern Denmark, is available here  and here  respectively. 

Qualifications:

• Master's degree in economics, management, psychology, or a related field, obtained before the start of the scholarship.
• Strong interest in and some knowledge of behavioral economics, especially behavioral decision theory.
• Strong analytical and econometric/statistical skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Candidates with strong programming skills (e.g., Python, R) are preferred.
• Knowledge in experimental methods and experience in designing and conducting lab or online experiments is considered a plus.
• Excellent communication skills in English (enclosing results of TOEFL and GRE tests is encouraged but not mandatory).

Further information about the position can be obtained from Associate Professor Huanren Zhang, e-mail: [email protected] . Further information about the PhD program can be obtained from the department’s PhD Coordinator Professor Giovanni Mellace, e-mail: [email protected] . For general questions regarding housing, taxes etc., the SDU’s International Staff Office can assist - see link .

Application, salary, etc.

Your employment as a Salaried PhD Research Fellow is governed by the agreement of 10 November 2015 on Graduate Employees in government appendix 5 – protocol on PhD Research Fellows. The scholarship runs for three years.

An application must include:

• Detailed CV.
• Copies of diplomas and academic transcripts.
• A motivational letter describing why the applicant is a good match for the topic and how the applicant’s skills provide a solid foundation to do so (max. 2 pages).
• A project description (max 5 pages of 2400 characters each, including references. Guidelines for preparing project description provided by the faculty).
• An abstract for the above project description of no more than 250 words.
• Application form (available here ).

When applying for a PhD scholarship, please fill in the application form available on our web page . On the webpage of the PhD-school, you can find the guidelines  for preparing your project proposal within the PhD programme in Economics.

All non-Danish/non-Scandinavian documents must be translated into English.

Applications will be assessed by a committee. When the evaluation committee has submitted its report, the applicant will receive the part of the evaluation that concerns him/her. The assessment committee evaluates the applications based on the appointment guidelines of the department. 

Applications that are incomplete regarding the above requirements will not be assessed by the committee.

As required by the conditions of this SDC scholarship, Chinese citizens including citizens from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao are not eligible for the position. Potential PhD candidates from China (including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao) must be enrolled through University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS).

Shortlisting and tests may be used in the assessment process.

The University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.

As part of the overall assessment of the applicant's qualifications, an interview may be applied.

Applications must be submitted electronically using the link "Apply online" no later than 15 June 2023. Uploaded files must be in Adobe PDF (unlocked) or Word format.

Read the guideline for applicants