PhD scholarship as part of “Social Identity” project at the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen

Applications are invited for a PhD scholarship at the Department of Economics. The PhD scholar will be part of the “Economic Foundations of Social Identity and Political Fragmentation” project funded by the Carlsberg Foundation, and they will be enrolled at the Faculty of Social Sciences under the PhD School in the Social Sciences.

The position starting date is 1 September 2026.

Research project and team
The “Economic Foundations of Social Identity and Political Fragmentation” project studies the economic components in voters’ social identities and their political consequences. The project entails several work streams, including an empirical mapping of within- and between-group inequality for a variety of politically relevant social groups over time, survey experiments to study economic drivers of voters’ group affiliations as well as the importance of group affiliations for political preferences, and models to understand how redistributive policy can potentially mitigate political polarization.

The project team consists of associate professor Amalie Sofie Jensen (PI) as well as co-investigators professor Jacob Gerner Hariri (Dept. of Political Science, UCPH) and assistant professor Andreas Wiedemann (Dept. of Politics, Princeton University).

As a PhD on the project, you will work together with the rest of the team on one or more sub-projects. You will get to work with Danish administrative data, survey questionnaire design, survey data collection and analysis, and will get to present the results on workshops and conferences and participate in other scholarly activities. You will also develop your own independent sub-project(s). These will be broadly within the scope of the overall project, and could use the project data, other data, or theory.

You will be a part of the PhD group at the Department of Economics and the academic and social environment at the Center for Economic Behaviour and Inequality (CEBI). You will also have close contact to the Department of Political Science and its scholarly activities. Furthermore, you are expected to visit an international research institution for at least half a year during your PhD to expand your international network and learn from other academic environments.

The PhD programme
The PhD programme provides PhD students with strong research training which opens up a window of opportunities to a variety of careers within the private and public sectors. The programme includes the drafting of a PhD thesis, active participation in research networks, PhD courses, teaching, and other forms of knowledge dissemination. The PhD programme will be undertaken as a three-year full-time study within the framework of the 5+3 study programme, or a four-year full-time study within the framework of the 4+4 study programme. Further information about the PhD study programme is available on the website of the PhD School in the Social Sciences: https://socialsciences.ku.dk/phd/.

Duties and Responsibilities
As a PhD student on the project, you are expected to:

• Co-author with the other project members on one or more research papers
• Develop your own independent research paper(s) within the scope of the overall project
• Write an article-based PhD thesis based on these co-authored and individual research papers
• Attend PhD courses
• Participate in workshops, seminars, and conferences
• Teach and disseminate your research
• Visit another international research institution for at least half a year

Further information about the PhD study programme is available on the website of Copenhagen Graduate School of Social Sciences: PhD School in the Social Sciences – Faculty of Social Sciences - University of Copenhagen.

Under "Legal basis" on the website you will find information about the rules and guidelines for the PhD programme and the Danish Ministerial Order on the PhD programme at the Universities.

Information about the PhD study programme is also available on the PhD website of the Department of Economics. Please see: https://www.economics.ku.dk/phd/.

Applicants should familiarise themselves with the research strategy and the ongoing research at the department before submitting their application. Further information can be found here: https://www.economics.ku.dk/department/reportsplans/Econ_Strategy_2019-2022.pdf.

Qualification requirements
We are looking for the following qualifications in a candidate:

• Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to master’s level related to the subject area of the project, e.g. MSc in economics or political science (required)
• A substantial interest in political economy and applied econometrics (required)
• A willingness to take on independent responsibilities and work collaboratively as part of a team (required)
• Experience with analysis on administrative data or other large datasets and/or experience with survey design and survey data collection (preferred)
• Experience with statistical software such as Stata and/or R (preferred)

If you have completed your education in Denmark, you must have a master’s degree covered by the collective agreement for academics in the state sector.

If you have completed your education outside of Denmark, you must either have a master’s degree equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years) or as minimum a bachelor’s degree equivalent to a Danish bachelor’s degree (three years) and be assessed as having professional qualifications at master's level.

If you have completed your education outside of Denmark, we will obtain an assessment of your education from the Danish Research Agency.

If you do not have an education equivalent to a relevant Danish master´s degree or qualifications corresponding to Danish master’s level, you might be qualified for the integrated MSc and PhD programme (4+4).

Scholarship in the 5+3 or the 4+4 PhD study programmes 
The 5+3 PhD study programme 
PhD students are paid a salary in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). The PhD student has a work obligation of up to 840 hours over the 3 year period of time without additional pay. The work obligation can include teaching, for instance. The PhD student is expected to seek funding for fieldwork as this is not included in the scholarship.

The 4+4 PhD study programme 
Until an MSc degree is obtained, the grant is paid partly in the form of up to 48 state education grant portions (in Danish: SU-klip). More specifically the PhD student will be paid two grant portions per month plus salary for work (teaching, presentations etc.) which totals a workload of at least 280 hours. Payment and conditions of employment are carried out in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). Upon completion of the MSc degree programme, the student is transferred to the salary-earning part of the PhD studies. The PhD student is expected to seek funding for fieldwork as this is not included in the scholarship.

How to apply
Please submit your application online. To apply, please click on the “Apply now” icon at the bottom of this page. Your application must be written in English, and include the following attachments (with descriptive titles) in either PDF or Word format:

• Cover Letter (max. 1 page, detailing your motivation and background for applying with the specific PhD project).
• CV.
• Project abstract (max. 1,200 characters incl. spaces).
• Project description (max. 12,000 characters incl. spaces, not including bibliography). In your project description, we invite you to outline two to three research ideas within the scope of the overall research theme for this PhD position. You should focus on which research questions you would like to answer and which approaches and methods you will apply. The exercise is designed to assess your research maturity and interests – specifically, your ability to identify meaningful questions, conceptualize a feasible research framework, and think through possible methods of analysis. Please note, you are not necessarily expected to pursue these particular ideas during your PhD; rather, this outline allows us to evaluate your potential as a researcher.
• Diploma and transcripts of records (BSc and MSc diplomas and grades. Please include your latest transcript of grades, if you have not yet obtained your degree diploma).   
• Time schedule (overall time plan for the PhD).
• Budget (if relevant).
• Other information for consideration, e.g. list of publications (if any).

Further details on the documents that should accompany your application are available on this website: Admission requirements and application procedures – University of Copenhagen.

Applicants holding a degree from a university where the working language is neither English nor a Scandinavian language must include translated versions of their diploma and transcripts, verified by the issuing university. The documents must be translated into English, Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish. In addition, an official description of the relevant grading scale (e.g. diploma supplement) must be included.

The recruitment process

Further information on the recruitment process at the University of Copenhagen can be found here: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/.

The following criteria are used when shortlisting candidates for assessment: 

• Research qualifications as reflected in the project proposal and fit of the project proposal with the research agenda of the overall project that the PhD position is a part of
• Quality and feasibility of the project
• Qualifications and knowledge in relevant Economics and Political Science disciplines
• Performance (grades obtained) in graduate and post-graduate studies
• Department of Economics can offer adequate supervision for the research topic in question

Selected applicants are notified of the composition of the Assessment Committee, and each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant themselves.

After assessment of the Assessment Committee, a selected number of applicants will be invited for an interview. There will be a case as part of the interview process.

Enrolment
In order to be awarded a PhD scholarship, the applicant has to enroll as a PhD student at the Faculty of Social Sciences, cf. the rules of the Danish Ministerial order No 1039 of 27 August 2013.  

An Equal Opportunity Workplace
The University of Copenhagen is committed in its pursuit of academic excellence to equality of opportunity and to creating an inclusive working environment and therefore encourages all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of personal background, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity etc. For more on the diverse working place environment at the University and the University’s participation in the HRS4R HR Excellence in Research, see https://employment.ku.dk/working-at-ucph/eu-charter-for-researchers/.

International applicant?
The University of Copenhagen offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including support before and during your relocation and career counselling to expat partners. Please find more information about these services as well as information on entering and working in Denmark here: https://ism.ku.dk/.

Contact information
We kindly encourage you to consult our website, where most questions regarding the recruitment process as well as the academic content and structure of the PhD programme are answered:
Structure of the PhD programme – University of Copenhagen

How to obtain a PhD scholarship – University of Copenhagen

Information about the recruitment process is available from HR South, e-mail: hr-soendre@adm.ku.dk. Please refer to ID number: 211-2370/26-2H #2.

Additional information about the position can be obtained from associate professor Amalie Sofie Jensen (email: asj@econ.ku.dk).

The closing date for applications is 1 March 2026 at 23:59 (CET).

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.