Young People’s Career and Life Expectations

NOTE: The deadline to apply has been extended to 1 April

The Department of Economics at Royal Holloway is inviting students to apply for a full-time scholarship for doctoral research on:

Young People’s Career and Life Expectations

Young people’s choices have a dramatic impact on their life-time outcomes. This project aims to better understand what shapes young people’s subjective expectations. The project is based on an analysis of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a large study of individuals born around 2000, and will assess how childhood conditions (parental or family characteristics, location, school) and shocks to these conditions impact on teenagers’ expectations.

The project is empirically focused, so while knowledge of labour economics would be useful, data management skills and high level of competence in econometrics are required. Experience with managing large national level survey data and expertise in statistical softwares (Stata or R) is desirable, but training will be provided to reach proficiency. Most of all, the successful candidate will have a great enthusiasm for research and be passionate about understanding young people’s decision-making.

The successful candidate will be encouraged to define their own PhD topic within the broad remit of this research agenda.

The Scholarship

The School of Law and Social Sciences PhD Scholarship offers a home fee waiver and a maintenance award of £16,000 p.a. for 3.5 years for full-time students (or half of that amount per year for 7 years for part-time students). International students are eligible to apply but please note that if successful the difference between the home and overseas fee will need to be funded from another source.

Successful candidates should start in September 2022.

Economics at RHUL

The successful candidate will be supervised by Prof Arnaud Chevalier and Prof Melanie Luhrmann. The candidate will also become a member of the Economics of Household (EcHo) research centre and engage with its researchers.

The Department of Economics at Royal Holloway is one of the top economics departments in the country with a wide range of expertise, including labour economics, development economics, microeconomic theory, and experimental economics. In the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF2014), it has been ranked 9th in the UK in terms of world-leading and internationally excellent research.

The Department is home to about 30 research active staff and 25 PhD students. It offers a stimulating research environment and a vibrant PhD programme with advanced economics training in the first year and a great placement record. As part of the PhD program, advanced courses in micro-economics, macro-economics and econometrics, as well as other courses that might be needed will be provided.

Eligibility and Application Process

The successful applicant must hold a Masters degree in Economics or expect to have completed one by 30 September 2022.

Please submit a letter of interest, a CV, transcripts of your Undergraduate and Masters degrees and a proposal (up to 2,000 words) setting out how you would develop the envisaged research project.

These materials will need to be submitted directly to Prof Arnaud Chevalier [Email Address Removed].