1 PhD Research position in Sociology in Netherlands | VU University Amsterdam

This PhD project will focus on a key social statistic that informs policy and public debate: flexible employment in the Netherlands; Increasingly, CBS uses information from multiple sources to produce statistics – a problem is then that these sources may not agree about the truth; Recent research has shown that measurement error may be responsible for this mismatch, so that, to properly inform the country, it is essential to correct for such errors.

The candidate will work with the Dutch Labour Force Survey and administrative data from registers, and use latent class analysis to solve the aforementioned problem; The sensitivity of the estimates to various assumptions of latent class models such as the time independence of the error will be examined; The aim of the project is to produce consistent estimates of the size of flexible employment and mobility from flexible to permanent employment; These tables will be used for the production of CBS StatLine, indirectly impacting important policy decisions; Furthermore, the candidate will show how the methods developed to produce these tables are more broadly applicable, with the aim of furthering the use of combined survey and administrative data in official statistics worldwide.

As a candidate, you will execute this project consisting of literature study, development of new statistical methods, application of the methods to empirical social science data, and development of user-friendly software; You will communicate the results of the project both orally, at presentations and international conferences, and in writing, by publishing peer-reviewed articles in international journals and by writing a dissertation. The PhD will become a member of the Graduate School of Social Sciences and will follow a course for 30 EC. The appointed researcher will be based at the VU University Amsterdam and will visit Statistics Netherlands in The Hague regularly to collaborate with CBS staff;

Requirements

Candidates who would like to apply must fulfill the following requirements:

• Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Statistics, or a related discipline;
• Ambitious and able to work independently;
• Solid background in methodology and statistics; experience with log-linear and latent class models will be considered an advantage;
• Ability to collaborate with academics and non-experts and to present complex statistical models to the latter group clearly;
• Excellent knowledge of the English language;

Conditions of employment

The starting date of employment is the September 1st 2015 or shortly thereafter. The appointment will be initially for 1 year. After satisfactory evaluation of the initial appointment, it can be extended for another 3 years.

The salary will be in accordance with the collective employment agreement (CAO) for academic personnel, and amounts € 2.125,- gross per month in the first year up to € 2.717,- in the fourth year based on a full-time employment.

Organisation

VU University Amsterdam is one of the leading institutions for higher education in Europe and aims to be inspiring, innovative, and committed to societal welfare. It comprises twelve faculties and has teaching facilities for 25,000 students.

Department

The Faculty of Social Sciences (FSW) is a large and ambitious faculty. Approximately 3,000 students and more than 300 employees are engaged in education and research in social sciences. The Faculty promotes high level scientific research and education at the academic level. The research in the department is organized in four research groups that converge in the research program ‘Participation in Society’ (PARIS). Besides SILC, the other research groups are ‘Social Context of Aging’, ‘Identity, Diversity and Inclusion’ and ‘Social Conflict and Change’. This job vacancy lies within the research group ‘Social Inequality and the Life Course’ (SILC) of the department of Sociology.

This vacancy is a part of the collaboration of the VU University with Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Statistics Netherlands is the primary source of official statistics in the Netherlands, producing important numbers that are used daily by government, politics, and the media, for example through CBS StatLine.