Student Research Assistant Traineeship Programme - Financial Research

Your role

As a trainee Student Research Assistant, you will support research projects by :

• constructing and maintaining monetary, financial and economic databases;
• presenting data in conjunction with basic economic and statistical analyses;
• developing mathematical, statistical and econometric procedures for use in research projects;
• supporting and maintaining software tools and hardware installations.

Depending on your areas of expertise, your work may also require you to conduct microeconometric analyses (primarily in Stata) and time series analyses (primarily in MATLAB) or to solve, calibrate and simulate DSGE models with banking and financial frictions (using MATLAB and Dynare).

The position offers you an excellent opportunity to work closely with our economists and gain first-hand exposure to world-class research.

You will be able to develop your analytical skills and get an insight into the ECB’s research activities and policymaking processes.

You will also engage with new ideas and stimuli that will provide a useful foundation for your future career or graduate studies.

You will be part of a multicultural team that strives for continuous innovation to make a positive impact on the lives of European citizens.

Qualifications, experience and skills

Essential :

• a bachelor’s degree or higher in economics, statistics, finance, mathematics or a related field;
• experience in at least one of the following technical areas of expertise :
• compiling large cross-sectional datasets (e.g. financial transactions data, household or firm-level survey data, or bank / firm balance sheet data);
• micro-econometric modelling (e.g. fixed and random effects estimation, difference-in-difference estimation, propensity score-matching estimation, event study analysis);
• time series modelling (e.g. vector autoregression, state-space modelling, quantile regression);
• DSGE modelling (e.g. development, solution, calibration and estimation);
• in-depth knowledge of at least one of the following high-level programming languages : Stata, MATLAB, Python and R;
• a good knowledge of the MS Office package;
• an advanced (C1) command of English and an intermediate (B1) command of at least one other official language of the EU, according to the .

Desired :

• a master’s degree or a period of study towards a master’s degree in economics, statistics, finance, mathematics or a related field;
• familiarity with at least one of the following databases / data providers : Bureau van Dijk, Fitch Connect, SNL Financial, Dealogic, Bankscope, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters Eikon;
• familiarity with macroeconomic and financial statistics as presented in international databases (e.g. the ECB Statistical Data Warehouse, ECB Household Finance and Consumption Survey, Eurostat, Bank for International Settlements, International Monetary Fund International Financial Statistics);
• experience in machine learning techniques;
• a good knowledge of spreadsheet and database software, in particular SQL, Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access;
• familiarity with solving, calibrating and simulating DSGE models using perturbation or global methods in MATLAB and Dynare.

You are curious and eager to learn, and want to further develop your ability to analyse complex information. You are keen to collaborate with others, pursue team goals and learn from other people’s diverse perspectives.

You strive to know and anticipate stakeholder needs, and will signal any need for change and propose alternative solutions.

You are motivated to contribute to the ECB’s mission, to serve the citizens of the EU as a member of a public institution and to work with colleagues from all over Europe.

You are keen to be part of our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the aims of this position.