PhD position in the field of The evolution of corporate finance research

Department

Faculty of Economics and Business

Organisation

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, University of Groningen, V25.0151

Job description

Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has enjoyed an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative center of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Belonging to the best research universities of Europe and joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.

Faculty of Economics and Business
The Faculty of Economics and Business offers an inspiring study and working environment for students and employees. International accreditation enables the Faculty to assess performance against the highest international standards. It also creates an exciting environment of continuous improvement. FEB's programmes, academic staff and research do well on various excellence ranking lists.

FEBRI, the graduate school and research institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business has PhD position in the field of The evolution of corporate finance research available.

Project and job description
Finance theory helps to explain how financial markets work and how to best make financial and/or regulatory decisions. Empirical finance research, in turn, studies the behavior of real-world market participants and policymakers to assess the accuracy of existing theories on the one hand and, and to inform the next generation of finance theories, on the other. However, this is a circular process, since real-world market participants and policymakers, who are themselves the object of empirical studies, have studied finance theory in business schools and follow the model’s normative implications in their decision-making. These mutual feedback effects create non-trivial dynamics in the evolution of finance research.
This project aims to deepen the understanding of this very dynamic in corporate finance, i.e., to answer questions such as why has corporate finance research evolved in the way it has? Which factors have favored the development and what are the counterfactual outcomes? Which role does the evolution of corporate finance research (and the implied behavior of policy makers and market participants) play in the occurrence of financial crises and economic uncertainty? What measures could be taken to select more favourable equilibria going forward? The project aims to answer these questions by rigorous modelling (e.g. mean field game theory, or evolutionary game theory), empirical methods, and by close study of the history and development of corporate finance as a scientific discipline.
The candidate that we have in mind for this position is someone with strong mathematical skills and genuine and demonstrable interest in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science in general, and of financial economics in particular.
The PhD position is part of a starting grant for young researchers, running in the programme Economics, Econometrics and Finance of the Research Institute of the faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen. The project will be supervised by Sebastian Pfeil, Melissa Vergara Fernández and Abe de Jong.

Requirements

The minimum requirement is to have a background (MSc, MA, Research Master) in Finance, Economics, Economic History, History and/or Philosophy of Economics. We require candidates to have strong quantitative skills and aim to find students with a demonstrated affinity with history, philosophy of science, and/or sociology.

Conditions of employment

Contract length: 48 months.

We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:

- A gross monthly salary from a minimum of € 2,901, which increases yearly to a maximum of € 3,707 for a full-time appointment.
- Based on the gross salary an additional 8% holiday allowance each year in May, and an additional 8.3 % end of year bonus in December. PhD candidates contribute 20% of their time to teaching in years 2-4.
- A temporary full-time appointment for a period of four years, under the condition of a positive assessment at the end of the first year.

Starting date: Preferably per 1 September 2025

Job Application

The application package consists of the following separate documents: - A motivation letter (1 A4 max) and a short academic reflection on the PhD project (1 A4 max). - Curriculum Vitae, which includes names of two references. - A scan of the diploma, including transcripts. - Proof of English language skills (native speakers without a language certificate can submit an explanation). - Other relevant documents (e.g., a research paper or thesis). The documents 1-4 are compulsory. Incomplete application packages will not be taken into account. An assessment may be part of the procedure, consisting of psychological tests and an interview. You may apply for this position until 30 March 11:59pm / before 31 March 2025 Dutch local time (CEST) by means of the application form (click on "Apply" below on the advertisement on the university website). The University of Groningen strives to be a university in which students and staff are respected and feel at home, regardless of differences in background, experiences, perspectives, and identities. We believe that working on our core values of inclusion and equality are a joint responsibility and we are constructively working on creating a socially safe environment. Diversity among students and staff members enriches academic debate and contributes to the quality of our teaching and research. We therefore invite applicants from underrepresented groups in particular to apply. For more information, see also our diversity policy webpage: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/policy-and-strategy/diversity-and-inclusion/ Our selection procedure follows the guidelines of the Recruitment code (NVP): https://www.nvp-hrnetwerk.nl/nl/sollicitatiecode and European Commission's European Code of Conduct for recruitment of researchers: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/code We provide career services for partners of new faculty members moving to Groningen. Unsolicited marketing is not appreciated.

Additional information

For additional information, please contact:

For more general information, please send an email to
[email protected]

Sebastian Pfeil (for information about the project)
[email protected]

and Melissa Vergara Fernández (for information about the project)
[email protected]

In your application, please always include the job opening ID V25.0151

Digital application form