PhD Traineeship in the Sector Accounts and Fiscal Statistics Section

As a PhD trainee in the Sector Accounts and Fiscal Statistics Section, you will be part of the Sector Accounts and Fiscal Statistics Section in the Directorate General Statistics. Our Directorate General has over 300 members of staff working to strengthen Europe by supporting ECB decision-making with high-quality data and statistics.

In this role, you will be part of a team of around 18 members of staff who are primarily responsible for developing, compiling and disseminating financial and non-financial sector accounts for the euro area and government finance statistics. The team collects, validates and distributes related data on EU Member States and national accounts items such as GDP, provides services to users of sector accounts and fiscal statistics, and coordinates the ECB’s contribution to further developing and harmonising these data internationally. You will work closely with colleagues from across the ECB, as well as with national central banks, Eurostat, national statistical offices and the international statistical community.

Your role

• Contribute to developing and producing distributional wealth accounts for the euro area.
• Prepare documents for meetings with experts from national authorities.
• Develop and refine methods used to estimate distributional wealth accounts.
• Maintain and improve the code used to produce distributional wealth accounts.
• Collaborate with colleagues from the ECB and the European System of Central Banks.
• Carry out a study of distributional wealth accounts and present the results at an internal seminar and/or to experts from national authorities.
• Contribute to other development tasks in the field of macroeconomic financial accounts by institutional sector.

The traineeship offers excellent opportunities to take part in conceptual, methodological and operational work on statistics in a policymaking institution. You will work independently under the guidance of a mentor and be part of a multicultural team that strives for continuous innovation to make a positive impact on the lives of European citizens.

Qualifications, experience and skills

Essential

• A master’s degree and at least two years of PhD studies in the field of economics, econometrics, statistics, mathematics, social sciences or another relevant field.
• A proven ability to code using R, Python, MATLAB, Stata or another programming language.
• Experience dealing with large and complex datasets, such as survey data or microdata.
• A good knowledge of the MS Office package.
• An advanced (C1) command of English and an intermediate (B1) command of at least one other official language of the EU, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Desired

• Knowledge of national accounts (financial and/or non-financial) or related economic statistics (e.g. monetary and financial statistics, external statistics or household surveys), and/or experience using such data in applied research or analysis.
• Knowledge or experience of financial instruments and/or statistical methods, such as statistical modelling and inference or data extrapolation methods.
• Experience using R for analytical purposes.
• Good drafting skills and the ability to explain complex concepts in non-technical terms.

You are curious and eager to learn, and want to further develop your ability to analyse complex information. You are keen to collaborate with others, pursue team goals and learn from other people’s diverse perspectives. You strive to know and anticipate stakeholder needs, and will signal any need for change and propose alternative solutions.

You are motivated to contribute to the ECB’s mission, to serve the citizens of the EU as a member of a public institution and to work with colleagues from all over Europe. You are keen to be part of the team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the aims of this position.

Further information

Initial PhD traineeship of six months, with a possible extension to up to 12 months in total.