Student Research Assistant Traineeship Programme 

The Student Research Assistant Traineeship Programme is aimed at high-performing students with a strong quantitative background and an interest in policy-relevant and applied research. You are encouraged to apply if you have completed a bachelor’s degree in economics, statistics, finance, computer science, mathematics or a related field, and especially if you are currently pursuing postgraduate studies (master’s or PhD) in the same subject fields.

Depending on your area of technical expertise, you will be assigned to projects in one of the following teams or divisions:

• Financial Research Division, where you would provide research assistance in financial and monetary economics (e.g. theoretical and empirical banking, asset pricing, macro-financial linkages, systemic risk and financial stability), either by conducting microeconometric/time-series analyses (primarily in Stata and MATLAB) or by applying big data/machine learning techniques (knowledge of SQL and Python would be an asset); 

• Monetary Policy Research Division, where you would support research projects on monetary policy and macroeconomic issues, either by analysing econometric/time-series, microeconomic, cross-sectional and panel datasets (primarily in Stata and MATLAB) or by developing dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) and heterogeneous agent models; knowledge of Python and natural language processing would be an asset;

• Senior Management team, where you would help to solve models, as well as compile and analyse large microeconomic cross-sectional and panel datasets on a wide range of topics;

• Monetary-Macroprudential Policy and Financial Stability team, where you would support research projects focusing on the effects of monetary and macroprudential policies, in terms of how they interact with each other and how they affect the stability of the financial sector;

• Household Finance and Consumption Network team, where you would support the analysis of household heterogeneity in the euro area, either by conducting econometric studies based on data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey or by developing structural models;

• Price-setting Microdata Analysis team, where you would support research projects on the macroeconomic consequences of price setting, either by conducting econometric analyses of web-scraped, scanner and official microdata or by developing theoretical models.

As a participant in the Programme, you will have the opportunity to work closely with DG/R’s economists and management. You will support them in academic research projects and in work of an operational nature, such as the preparation of policy-related notes addressed to the ECB’s Executive Board. This will enable you to develop your analytical skills and gain an insight into the ECB’s research activities and policymaking processes. The Programme will also expose you to new ideas and stimuli that can provide a useful foundation for your future career and/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.