The Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), invites candidates for a position as a student research assistant for the project “Shocking Religion” (financed by the Independent Research Fund Denmark).
The position is for 1½ years and 10-15 hours weekly. The expected start date is May 1st or as soon as possible thereafter.
Introduction In this position, you will join a team of researchers at the Department of Economics. You will help us conduct the project “Shocking Religion”, which examines the impact of religion on economic factors using shocks to religion as natural experiments. We will exploit data on millions of individuals and companies across the globe to explore how religion influences factors, such as the development of science, gender roles, and economic growth. The project contributes to a growing international literature examining the causes and consequences of religion. More broadly, the project is part of a tendency in the social sciences to focus on cultural values as an important determinant of social factors.
The position is located within the Macroeconomics and the Historical Record (MEHR) group in the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen.
Your competences and responsibilities
It will be an advantage if you are a student in computer science, economics, social data science, or data-economics (Danish: datalogi-økonomi) and to have a solid interest in working with quantitative data.
You will be assisting with
a) gathering large unstructured data using different methods such as web scraping or document data extraction, or by structuring existing digitized data
b) cleaning, merging, and visualizing these data
c) analyzing these data using Natural Language Processing and network analysis.
It is not a requirement that you master these methods already. Instead, the most important requirement is that you have an interest in learning these types of methods and the substantive questions they are used to answer. You may also assist in econometric analysis and literature reviews, but this is not a requirement.
Your opportunities
As a research assistant in our group, you will learn:
If you are interested, the position prepares you for an application for a PhD position (this is not required, though).
Strategy of the Faculty of the Social Sciences The Department of Economics is part of the Faculty of the Social Sciences. The Faculty is a successful academic community that strives to put knowledge into action by:
For more on the Faculty strategy, SAMF strategy. You can read the Department's strategy here: Strategy Department of Economics
Terms of Employment
Appointment and salary will be according to the current agreement between the Ministry of Finance and HK and is positioned as a student-HK.
The minimum wage is DKK 132,68. Salary will be based on seniority.
In order to be considered for the position, you must be enrolled as a student at university level.
An Equal Opportunity Workplace The University of Copenhagen is committed in its pursuit of academic excellence to equality of opportunity and to creating an inclusive working environment and therefore encourages all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of personal background, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity etc. For more on the diverse working place environment at the University and the University's participation in the HRS4R HR Excellence in Research, see https: // employment.ku.dk/working-at-ucph/eu- charter-for-researchers/
Contact information Information about the recruitment process is available from HR, e-mail: [email protected], please refer to ID number: 161440
Additional information about the position can be obtained from Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, e-mail: [email protected].
How to Apply Submit a complete application at our online portal. Click on the “Apply now” icon at the bottom of the page to apply. The documents must be in Adobe PDF or Word.
Your application can be written in either Danish or English and must include the following documents:
The closing date for applications is April 7, 23:59 CEST/CET/Danish time .
Applications or enclosures received thereafter will not be considered.
UCPH is in the process of designing a new shared administrative organisation at UCPH, which is expected to lead to changes within the next 12 - 18 months. The purpose of the administrative reform is, among other things, to strengthen cross-organisational cooperation, increase efficiency, and ensure good career paths for administrative staff members at UCPH. The reform will lead to cutbacks on administration. You are encouraged to contact [email protected] to learn more about the connection between this position and the administrative reform.