We are looking for an applied economist to join our team of developers and analysts at CeMPA. The appointee will work on edge-cutting quantitative research on the socio-economic determinants of health, the impact of health on labour market outcomes, the determinants and effects of economic insecurity, and the relationship between health, income and wealth inequalities. The work will be centred around the SimPaths dynamic microsimulation framework developed at CeMPA, which will be extended both in scope – including additional health and economic outcomes – and in its geographical coverage, with calibration to a number of EU countries in addition to the UK. The post is funded by a number of projects including
The work involves using quantitative empirical methods to update estimates for a number of European countries, as well as contributing to model development for the UK. Knowledge of microsimulation methods is welcome but not necessary.
SimPaths is an innovative dynamic framework for life course analysis, which integrates and extends the tax-benefit model EUROMOD/UKMOD. It focuses on the interaction between the family, work and health dimensions of individual life course trajectories, and it allows to study the medium- and long-term challenges to societal well-being and the constraints and opportunities faced by the welfare state.
The work is part of a project funded by ESPON, an EU-sponsored programme that delivers quality expertise to public authorities responsible for designing territorial policies (https://www.espon.eu/). The project, titled “Overlapping crises: (re)shaping the future of regional labour markets” involves extending the SimPaths framework to include a more fine-grained regional disaggregation of outcomes, interaction with a proprietary macro model developed by a project partner, re-estimation of the model on UK and Italy, and novel estimation on France, Sweden and Poland.
The appointee will use quantitative empirical methods to update estimates of the various processes included in SimPaths, as well as contribute to research outputs based on the various project outcomes and other related research projects at CeMPA, based on his/her interests and expertise.
This is an exciting opportunity for an early-stage researcher to contribute to a fast growing research infrastructure. By working on the estimation and validation of a state-of-the-art model, the appointee will gain an understanding of how microsimulation models operate, and learn how they can be applied to investigate research questions in the field of life-course analysis, social policy, public economics, demography.
The post is initially funded for two years, starting on September 1 or as soon as possible afterwards, with thee possibility of further extending the contract.
Application closing date is 26 May 2024. More information is available here.