The European Central Bank has launched: PhD Traineeship, Sector Accounts and Fiscal Statistics Section.

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Your team

You will work in the Sector Accounts and Fiscal Statistics Section, which is part of the External Statistics and Sector Accounts Division in the Directorate General Statistics. The Section has around 18 staff and is primarily responsible for developing, compiling and disseminating euro area accounts – both financial and non-financial, broken down by sector – and government finance statistics. We collect, validate and disseminate related data on EU Member States and other national accounts items (e.g. gross domestic product). We also provide services to users of sector accounts and fiscal statistics and coordinate the ECB’s contribution to further developing and harmonising such data, both at EU level and on a global scale. 

The Section is currently working to develop new financial accounts products, while migrating to a new IT system as part of a Directorate-wide project. In your role 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.

The ECB is an inclusive employer and we strive to reflect the diversity of the population we serve. We encourage you to apply irrespective of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other characteristics.

Your role

As a Sector Accounts and Fiscal Statistics Section PhD trainee, you will:

• contribute to developing and producing distributional financial accounts for the euro area by linking microdata from the Eurosystem’s Household Finance and Consumption Survey to household macrodata included in the financial accounts, as well as by investigating potential analytical uses for these data;
• prepare documents for meetings with experts from national authorities;
• develop and refine methods used to estimate distributional financial accounts;
• maintain and improve the software (programmed with R) used to produce distributional financial accounts;
• liaise with colleagues (from both the ECB itself and the wider European System of Central Banks) responsible for analysing data, in order to explain the compilation process and assist with specific investigations;
• carry out a study on distributional wealth accounts and present the results at an internal seminar and/or to experts from national authorities.

This position will offer you excellent opportunities to take part in conceptual, methodological and operational work on statistics in a policy-making 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 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, financial and external statistics or household surveys), and experience using such data in applied research or analysis;
• knowledge and/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 our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the aims of this position.

Closing date: 11.07.2022

Further information

PhD traineeship of between 6 and 12 months in total, starting in September 2022.

For additional information on this specific vacancy, you can speak to Pierre Sola on +49 (0)69 1344 7993 between 16:00 and 18:00 CET on Wednesday, 22 June and Thursday, 30 June.

Application and selection process

Further information on how to join us is available on our website.

The recruitment process for this position will include a remote written exercise in the pre-selection phase and – if you are invited to participate in the subsequent selection phase – an online interview.

If you are not selected for this position but are still considered suitable, you will be placed on a reserve list for 12 months from the closing date for applications, from which you might be considered for similar positions within the ECB.