PhD Candidate: Understanding Old-Age Inequality

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The position is part of the research project 'Understanding old-age inequality: The impact of work, family and health trajectories on post-retirement economic, social and psychological well-being across Europe', funded by Instituut Gak. The primary goal of this project is to better understand inequality in old age, which might be increasing due to current policies to promote longer working lives. As a PhD candidate, you will examine how work, family and health trajectories prior to retirement affect inequality in people's retirement transitions and their post-retirement economic, social and psychological well-being. You will also study how labour market, pension and welfare policies aggravate or cushion the influence of work, family and health trajectories on old-age inequality.
You will innovatively build on theoretical insights derived from the life course perspective, namely the notion of path dependency, the cumulative advantage/disadvantage mechanism and the principle of agency, to arrive at new and testable hypotheses. These will be tested by applying advanced analysis techniques to high-quality panel and retrospective SHARE(LIFE) data of more than 90,000 people from 29 European countries.

As a PhD candidate, you will be expected to write scientific articles and to complete a dissertation within four years. Moreover, you will collaborate with researchers in the Sociology department and with external (including international) scholars, participate in conferences and contribute to teaching. You will also be expected to enrol in the highly reputed ICS graduate school.

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