Job Openings

At the Department of Agricultural Economics of the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel the following positions have to be filled as soon as possible:

4 research positions
salary according to BAT IIa (75% for junior researchers)


the positions are limited for 2 years with the possibility of extension. Moreover, researchers have the possibility to obtain a PhD degree in agricultural economics or economics.

Work description: All positions are linked to the interdisciplinary EU-research project „Advanced-Eval, which develops and applies advanced methods for the ex ante und ex post evaluation of EU-rural de-velopment policy programs. At the methodological and theoretical level the following research topics are of interest within the project:

1. Agent-based Modeling of rural economy as a complex social and economic system incorpo-rating social network relations among agents. In particular, the following research questions are ad-dressed: How can the organization of economic action in social network relations be modeled quantita-tively. What is the impact of social network relations on economic performance at the micro- and macro level.

2. Applied Econometrics. Application of propensity-score matching methods and methods of spatial econometrics to analyze ex post the economic impact of various rural development programs.

3. Political Economy Modeling of EU-Rural Development Policy (EU-RD policy). Quantitative analysis of the impact of formal and informal political institutions on local government performance re-garding the implementation of EU-RD policy. Empirical hypotheses are derived from game-theoretical or agent-based models of political decision making.

4. Simulation of an Economic-Ecological Systems based on a Multi-Agent-model. Incorporation of RD-policies into an economic decision-making model of farmers and a model of implied biological and physical processes at the regional level.

Researchers are directly integrated into a international and interdisciplinary research team within the EU-Project Advanced-eval. Moreover, all positions have access and are related to the Interdisciplinary Center of Numeric Simulation in applied Sciences as well as the DFG-Graduate School „Loosely con-nected systems and Electronic E-Business“ at the CAU.

A master degree or a comparable University degree in agricultural or food economics, Economics or social science, mathematical or computational economics is essential. A good knowledge in quantitative methods of economics or social science, Agent-based Modeling or positive political theory would be an asset.

The University seeks to increase the proportion of women on its staff and applications by suitably quali-fied female candidates will be preferred. Qualified candidates with physical disabilities will be given preferential consideration.
Please send applications and accompanying documents in the English language to:

Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Henning, Institut für Agrarökonomie, Wilhelm-Seelig-Platz 7, D-24098 Kiel
or via e-mail to uschwarz@agric-econ.uni-kiel.de
The deadline for applications is 30 October 2007.