PhD Candidate on Social Returns to Pension Investments

PhD position focused on Social Returns to Pension Investments in Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics. The project investigates how pension fund portfolio decisions interact with macroeconomic spillovers through infrastructure and innovation, and how these relate to structural challenges like ageing, climate transition, and geopolitical fragmentation. Responsibilities include developing quantitative macro models (overlapping generations), empirically estimating key parameters with macro and sectoral data for the Netherlands and Europe, and evaluating socially optimal portfolio allocations. The PhD student will be supervised by an interdisciplinary team in macroeconomics, pension economics, and sustainable finance, with opportunities to engage external partners in pension management and responsible investment. The position includes a teaching obligation equivalent to 0.2 FTE and offers an international, open environment with an 18-month contract and potential extension; flexible working hours and home-office options are provided.