PhD Research Position in Energy Economics/ Public Economics

Universität Bern

PhD Research Position in Energy
Economics/Public Economics

Center of Competence for Public Management (KPM)
University of Bern, Switzerland
Start date: 1 September 2026 (or as soon as possible thereafter)
Employment duration: 36 months (MSCA-DN funding)

Project & Funding Framework
Within the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA), we offer a position for a Doctoral Candidate (DC), starting September 1 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter. The position is funded for 36 months by the ENERPOL MSCA Doctoral Network.
ENERPOL is a European research and training network exploring the role of households in the green energy transition. It addresses challenges such as volatile energy prices, inequality, and household risk exposure. ENERPOL provides PhDs with a unique training opportunity in cutting-edge methods, theory, and transferable skills within an international consortium of leading universities and non-academic partners. ENERPOL training includes: (1) several international summer schools and workshops, (2) cross-national supervision teams dedicated to the project of the PhD, (3) one academic and one industry secondment.

The doctoral project hosted at the University of Bern (CH) will focus on the in-depth economic understanding of inequality aspects of electricity markets, advance methods to compute household energy-expenditure inequality and assess the effects of exposure to high and volatile electricity prices. The DC will conduct applied microeconometric research using administrative data.

Your Tasks

• Completing PhD courses at the Study Center Gerzensee (or equivalent programmes)
• Conduct independent and collaborative research in the area of energy economics, household energy expenditure inequality, and applied econometrics
• Prepare and complete a PhD dissertation in economics
• Present research at international conferences and ENERPOL training events
• Collaborate with academic and industry partners inside the network
• Contribute to teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Participate in active research environments including a stay at another research team, and a secondment at an industry partner

Required Qualifications

• Master's (MSc) degree in Economics or a related field (ideally, with some knowledge of statistical methods) with very good grades. Applicants with a master's degree from abroad should also enclose a short description of the grading scale used.
• Solid training in microeconomics, public economics, and applied econometrics
• Interest and ability to work with statistical software (e.g., STATA or similar)
• Excellent English (written and spoken) is required
• German proficiency is strongly preferred
• The successful candidate will be required to pass a GRE test to be allowed to apply for the PhD courses at the Study Center Gerzensee

MSCA Eligibility Requirements
The candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Switzerland for more than 12 months within the 36 months immediately before the start date (1 September 2026). The applicant must not already hold a doctoral degree at the date of recruitment.

Employment Conditions
Contract duration: 36 months
Gross annual salary: around 69,000 CHF
(Value listed is indicative. The final salary will be determined in accordance with the MSCA Call 2024 guidelines and the mandatory employer social security contributions at the University of Bern, and will be confirmed during the recruitment process)

Application Requirements
Applications must be submitted in English or German as 1 pdf document and should include:

• Motivation letter (max 1 page)
• Curriculum vitae
• Master's and Bachelor's degree certificates and transcripts. If you have not completed your Master's degree when applying for the position, please attach a transcript of records of the courses and grades that you have completed so far.
• One writing sample (e.g., Master's thesis or research paper)
• References and recommendations. Letters of recommendation and/or contact details of references may strengthen your application, but they are not mandatory. If you choose to include letters of recommendations, the references should send their letter of recommen-dation in PDF format to doina.radulescu@unibe.ch
• A statement detailing periods of residence/work/study in the last 36 months (MSCA requirement)

Application Procedure
Please submit your application electronically to:
Prof. Dr. Doina Radulescu
Email: doina.radulescu@unibe.ch

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

www.unibe.ch