Traineeship – PhD level – ECB

The Directorate General Economics of the European Central Bank (ECB) is seeking applications from postgraduate students who have recently received a PhD in economics, or who are close to completing their PhD studies, and are interested in participating in a traineeship programme. The traineeship will be in the Fiscal Policies Division for a period of three months in 2014.

The Fiscal Policies Division is responsible for monitoring, analysing and assessing the national fiscal policies of the Member States of the European Union (EU) and the euro area fiscal stance, as well as for providing fiscal forecasts. The functions of the Division include:

• monitoring and assessing national budgetary plans in the stability and convergence programmes of Member States, including their implementation in annual budget laws;
• monitoring and forecasting budgetary developments (including government financial operations), in close cooperation with national central banks;
• assessing structural and institutional fiscal policy issues (including issues related to the Stability and Growth Pact, tax and expenditure policies, social security reforms, the quality of public finances and the role of fiscal institutions);
• assessing the long-term sustainability of public finances (including the budgetary consequences of financial stability operations and population ageing);
• conducting analytical studies on current and structural public finance issues, both from an EU cross-country perspective and a euro area-wide perspective;
• providing secretariat services to the Working Group on Public Finance of the Monetary Policy Committee of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB);
• preparing the external communication of the views of the ECB as well as of the Eurosystem/ESCB on the fiscal policies of EU Member States and the euro area fiscal stance.

The purpose of the traineeship is to carry out analytical projects, either in collaboration with or under the supervision of staff members, while gaining experience in the tasks performed by the team.
Trainees will have the opportunity to submit the resulting papers for publication in the ECB Working Paper Series and academic journals.

Closing Date for Applications: 24.01.2014

Traineeship of three months with the possibility of an extension to up to 12 months in total in the same business area or in the Directorates General Research, International and European Relations, Macro-Prudential Policy and Financial Stability and Market Operations.
Envisaged starting date: Between April and November 2014

Read more and apply here.