KBS-Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence PhD Studentships in Economic Measurement

Funding: Various funding sources

Duration: 3 or 4 years Full Time

Application deadlines: 3 January 2023

Entry: October 2023 start.

Applications are invited for fully funded PhD studentships at the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).  The students will be supervised by ESCoE Research Associates from King’s Business School, other ESCoE partner institutes and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).  Supervisors could include Professors David Aikman, Rhys Bidder, Augustin de Coulon, George Kapetanios, Mary O’Mahony, Rebecca Riley and Martin Weale.

Project Description

Studentships are open to candidates who wish to pursue a PhD in the area of economic measurement. We are open to project proposals on any of the topics below particularly using new methods (such as machine learning) and new sources of data (e.g. web-scraped information or time-use data).

• Beyond GDP and inclusive wealth
• National Accounts (measurement issues regarding Prices, International Trade, Foreign Direct Investment)
• Net-zero, climate change and environment
• Subnational Statistics
• Productivity, Innovation and Business Dynamics
• Labour Markets and Households
• Time-use surveys

Specific projects of interest are ‘Developing understanding of the labour market using Time Use Surveys’, ‘Beyond GDP: Towards an index of local and national sustainable well-being’ and ‘Measuring the green economy’.

Candidates should have a strong quantitative background, with an undergraduate or graduate degree in Economics, Statistics, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics or similar. Knowledge of statistical software (e.g. SAS, Stata) or computer programming languages (e.g. Python, C/C++, Matlab and R) would be advantageous.

About ESCoE

ESCoE is an independent research centre established in 2017 and funded primarily by the ONS.  We are the first-ever dedicated academic centre of expertise for the analysis of emerging and future issues in measuring the modern economy. The Centre will be hosted at King’s Business School, King’s College London from April 2023.

The candidate will join the PhD programme at KBS, which provides strong computational and research training, in preparation for a career in academia or in the field of economics, economic measurement, data-analytics and statistics.  The programme includes PhD courses and the writing of a PhD thesis.

Eligibility

Academic requirements:

• Satisfy the entry requirements of the King’s Business School PhD programme - Master's degree with a Merit and a Bachelor's degree with 2:1 in a quantitative subject. International applicants can check the equivalence of their degrees here.
• English Language requirements (ILETS 7.0 overall with a minimum of 6.5 in each skill).

The studentship covers:

• Tuition fees
• An annual stipend
• A generous annual conference and training grant
• Additional paid teaching opportunities

How to Apply

Your application should consist of:

• A letter of interest of up to two pages in length outlining your background, interest and research skills related to the topic, and how you satisfy the requirements described above.
• A detailed CV.
• One academic reference letter, recently dated.

These should be e-mailed to kbs-phd@kcl.ac.uk by the 3^rd January 23:59 GMT (please put ESCoEPHD2023 in the subject title.). Please provide this e-mail address to the letter writers, so they can send the reference letters directly to us.

Formal appointment will be subject to checks on references, certificates/qualifications/etc., and English test scores (if relevant).

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