PhD Retirement Finance: solving the asset allocation puzzle (1.0 FTE)

Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has enjoyed an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative center of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Belonging to the best research universities of Europe and joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.



Faculty of Economics and Business

The Faculty of Economics and Business offers an inspiring study and working environment for students and employees. International accreditation enables the Faculty to assess performance against the highest international standards. It also creates an exciting environment of continuous improvement. FEB's programmes, academic staff and research do well on various excellence ranking lists.



FEBRI, the graduate school and research institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business has one PhD position in the field of Retirement Finance: solving the asset allocation puzzle available.



Project description

Decumulating post-retirement is a challenging problem in finance. Individuals must consider uncertain longevity and financial volatility when deciding optimal investment and consumption. Pensioners must balance their consumption needs, long-term care, bequest, and more. The wide variety of insurance products further complicates the decision. In this project, the candidate will use micro-econometric tools to investigate the preferences of retired households and apply analysis and numerical techniques to solve a corresponding optimal asset allocation problem in a stochastic setting. By combining these different techniques, the candidate will work on using sophisticated quantitative models for important financial and economic issues. After the program, the candidate should become an expert on retirement finance with training in micro-econometric and actuarial science, facilitating their handling of financial problems in an aging society.



The PhD position is embedded in the research programme Economics, Econometrics & Finance of FEB’s Research Institute. The project will be supervised by Bertrand Achou (https://www.rug.nl/staff/b.j.p.achou/), Ki Wai Chau (https://www.rug.nl/staff/k.w.chau/) and Ruud Koning (https://www.rug.nl/staff/r.h.koning/).

Requirements:

The ideal candidate is ambitious, highly motivated and wishes to make a career in research. You have a thorough training in research skills, speaks and writes English fluently and has obtained excellent results in the Master phase.

The PhD candidate should have a background (MSc, Research Master) in applied mathematics, economics, econometrics, finance, or actuarial studies. The ideal candidate should be familiar with econometric and/or optimization techniques, and have some prior experience with computer programming.

Salary Benefits:

We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:



• a gross monthly salary from a minimum of € 2,770 which increases yearly to a maximum of € 3,539

• an additional 8% holiday allowance each year in May, and an additional 8.3 % end of year bonus in December

• a temporary full-time appointment for a period of four years, under the condition of a positive assessment at the end of the first year. PhD candidates contribute 20% of their time to teaching in years 2-4.



Starting date: Preferably per 1 September 2024

38 hours per week

Broerstraat 5