PhD position on Risk Preferences

Are you a motivated student interested in doing research in financial economics? The Finance department at the faculty of SBE, VU Amsterdam seeks a PhD candidate for a 3-year full-time position (10% teaching) starting September 2025 or 2026.

Jouw functie

Background and scope of the research
You will conduct independent, high-quality research and work together with a diverse team of researchers, that is supported by high-level industry experts. The project that you will be part of aims at improving our understanding of the foundation of risk preferences. The analysis may include experiments, theory, and financial applications (general equilibrium and life-cycle models). The setup of the project allows you to show and develop a variety of skills and write a very complete job market paper, such that you will be very competitive on the academic job market. On the other hand, the strong ties of the project with the industry experts, also give you the opportunity to prepare well for an industry position.

The exact details of your schedule are determined in close consultation between you, and your supervisors. It is possible to work remotely but travelling to Amsterdam for meetings and teaching activities is required. This PhD position is a full-time position for a period of three years. The school provides opportunities to attend conferences, go on an exchange, meet other international researchers, and participate in various training modules that support your knowledge and skills development.

Your tasks

• perform high-quality research in the field of financial decision making, specifically risk preferences;
• assist in teaching activities of the finance department: BSc-level tutorials and supervising bachelor thesis (in total 10% of your time).

Jouw profiel

• We are looking for candidates with one of the following profiles:

  A. Students who are in their second year of the research master and expect to graduate before September 2025. Those students would enter the position directly per September 2025 on a three-year contract with 10% teaching.

  B. Students who are in their first year of the research master and expect to graduate before September 2026. Ideally, we then tailor both the coursework and the thesis to the project to be optimally prepared for the PhD position.

Research Group

• Prof. dr. Martijn van den Assem (supervisor).
• Prof. dr. Marieke Bos (co-supervisor).
• Dr. Martijn de Vries (coordinator and co-supervisor, daily supervisor).
• Rogier Potter van Loon (Chief Economist, TKP-pension/Aegon).

Advisory team

Prof. dr. Bas Werker (Dpt. of Econometrics and OR and Department of Finance, Tilburg University). Prof. dr. Marike Knoef (Dpt. of Economics, Tilburg University; Dean of TiSEM). Dr. Jorgo Goossens (Dpt. of Finance, Radboud University Nijmegen; Dpt. of Econometrics and OR, Tilburg University; Academic Advsior, APG Asset Management). Rob van de Goorbergh (Head of Research & Analytics, APG Asset Management). Mark Irwin (Pension specialist, Ortec). Stefan Lundbergh (Director Insights, Cardano). Maarten van Rooij (Senior Economist, Dutch Central Bank). Roel Mehlkopf (Pension fund advisor, Cardano). Ellen Kraft (Pension communication specialist, NN).

Wat bieden wij

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of minimum € 2.901,00 gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile PhD candidate. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year and after a satisfactory evaluation, will be extended for 2 years.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• a wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge
• contribution to commuting expenses
• solid pension scheme (ABP)

Over ons

School of Business and Economics
We at the School of Business and Economics (SBE) at VU Amsterdam bring together socially relevant teaching and research in the areas of business administration and economics. We focus on real-life issues that have a huge impact on society, economics and ecology: from robotics to big data, and from job market participation to change management.

Collaboration and cooperation, transparency and social responsibility are four keywords that embody our approach. Students, researchers and staff at SBE share real-world knowledge in order to devise solutions together to global economic and social challenges. In order to make a positive impact on the world, society and the lives of others.

Are you interested in joining SBE? You will work in a stimulating, dynamic and international environment with motivated colleagues dedicated to helping society make informed choices. SBE employs roughly 600 staff, with 7,250 students enrolled in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes and 1,700 executive students.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research.

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility. Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of VU Amsterdam. VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.