POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER in PUBLIC ECONOMICS
2023/2024
(“Drivers and consequences of rising economic inequality”)
deadline: January 4 2023
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER in PUBLIC ECONOMICS
Unirversity of Roma Tre - Department of Law
The Department of Law at the University of Roma Tre wishes to make a one-year (renewable) appointment to join our growing research team of scholars working in the fields of income and wealth distribution, economics of climate transition, and taxation of income and wealth.
The successful candidate will be collaborating part-time in the development of a research project on wealth distribution under the supervision of Dr Salvatore Morelli, Assistant Professor in Public Economics at the University of Roma Tre and director of the GC Wealth Project at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The researcher will be responsible for analysing micro data, time series of aggregated data, conducting bibliographic research, redacting in-depth documents in relation to the specific objectives of the research project. The job position also encourages the candidate to devote substantial amount of time to advance his or her personal research agenda. The fixed-term contract runs for 12 months and Renewal (for an extra 12 months period) can be granted, subject to a positive evaluation of the research and collaboration outputs. The researcher is expected to have a regular presence in the department (e.g. at least 2/3 days a week).
The successful candidate is welcome to support the organization of the Inequality in Rome seminar series run by our research team (see details on our 2022 spring series here, fall series here, and winter 2022/2023 series here).
Finally, the postdoctoral researcher can have the opportunity to build ties with the GC Wealth Project, a core project of the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. This will include an affiliation as Associated Researcher with the Stone Center, as well as the possibility to work collaboratively with colleagues based in New York and, potentially, visiting the Stone Center.
The Project “Drivers and consequences of rising economic inequality " - resp. Dr. Salvatore Morelli
The causes and implications of rising trends in income and wealth inequality in rich countries and how public intervention might respond are still poorly understood. However, these trends of rising economic inequality pose new challenges for our societies and are considered, in the long run, increasingly a threat to growth, social cohesion and the proper functioning of democratic institutions.
The project will address the following research topics: The distribution of wealth and income from capital and labor, as well as that of economic inequalities between groups (e.g., by gender, race, ethnicity, migration status); identification of the determinants (including public policies) and consequences of the concentration of wealth; positive and normative analysis of the taxation of income, wealth and property, inheritances and gifts; implications of growing income and wealth inequality for equality of opportunity; analysis of existing literature quantifying how climate risk affects economic inequality within countries; analysis of how existing economic inequalities interact with the main cause of climate change (greenhouse gas emissions), climate risks, and mitigation policy responses; Analysis of how different policies to transition to a low-carbon economy affect different income and wealth classes.
The recruited researcher(s) will be expected to be responsible for analyzing micro data, time series of aggregate data, assembling and documenting data, conducting literature reviews, and developing in-depth papers related to the specific objectives of the research project under the supervision of Dr. Salvatore Morelli.
The researcher(s) recruited through this process will also be expected, when necessary, to contribute to the updating of the publicly accessible GC wealth project data warehouse on various dimensions such as:
(a) Measures of aggregate wealth and wealth composition from national Balance sheet accounts and financial accounts.
(b) Wealth inequality indicators and classification of estimation methodology
c) Taxation of wealth and wealth transfers (i.e., estates, inheritances, and gifts).
(d) Data on wealth transfers.
The ideal candidate should have expertise in the fields of income and wealth distribution, economics of climate transition, carbon pricing, and taxation of income and wealth. An excellent knowledge of English is required; The successful candidate should also be familiar with programming languages for statistical and econometric analysis (e.g. in Stata, R, SAS, Matlab); The successful candidate should also document his/her research activity in economics or related fields and ongoing research projects.
Terms
Appointments will be on a one-year fixed-term contract based in Rome and will get a desk space at the department of Law. The annual gross salary will be € 38.000.
Application Procedure
The application requires the submission of the Application forms as found in the Public Call for applications (in Italian).
An English version of the public call can be found here
If available, submit your letters of reference (up to 3) or any other documentation directly to : giurisprudenza@ateneo.uniroma3.it
The closing date for applications is January 4, 2023.
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For any additional information: salvatore.morelli@uniroma3.it (cc: giurisprudenza@ateneo.uniroma3.it)
(please write “Postdoc Info” in the email object)
The faculty and research team in public economics at University of Roma Tre, Law Department