Postdoctoral Researcher: Generating Generosity

Job description
The postdoc is a key force in the project “Generating Generosity”, investigating why individuals with more income and wealth in The Netherlands tend to give less as a proportion of wealth and wealth, and how generosity may be enhanced.

The project includes theoretical, methodological, empirical and societal-intervention components. From a theoretical perspective, the project derives an overview of plausible explanations of the negative income/wealth-generosity gradient. The methodological component entails the development of a weighting procedure to link survey responses to income and inheritance tax register data. After deriving a solid theoretical input and a reliable weighing procedure, the project team will analyse linked survey-register data to empirically study theoretical considerations on the negative income/wealth-generosity gradient. Finally, the project includes field experiments to find ways to reverse this gradient and enhance generosity in society. The research will be conducted in collaboration with a group of stakeholders in fundraising and wealth management, and with the office of national statistics (Statistics Netherlands, CBS). More information about the project is available at https://renebekkers.wordpress.com/2024/07/23/generating-generosity/. The full proposal, including a detailed description of the subprojects, is available at https://osf.io/e3mux/.

The project team consists of a postdoctoral researcher (that could be you!), a PhD candidate, and a research assistant, is guided by Rene Bekkers, and works with an advisory board consisting of Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm, Sarah Smith and Hans Schmeets. The team members will all be hired for this project. For the postdoc position, we are seeking a highly motivated and talented researcher, with a keen eye for strong research designs. The successful candidate is an expert in longitudinal analysis of survey and/or register data, and has conducted behavioral experiments, preferably in the field.

Your tasks

• design and conduct research on the development of generosity over the life cycle, using data from the income tax and inheritance tax register and longitudinal panel surveys
• develop a weighting procedure for the linkage of survey and register data
• form and coordinate a stakeholder group for the field experiments
• conduct a survey and Delphi study on the interventions that will be tested in the field experiments
• be an active member of the project team and co-supervise the PhD candidate and research assistant of the project
• present research plans, methods and findings at national and international conferences
• adhere to principles of data and methods transparency by working in a reproducible way, sharing tools and data with the scientific community, and pre-registering research designs and hypotheses
• take an active role in the collaboration with fundraising organizations, wealth managers and other stakeholders in the project

Requirements:

• excellent training (PhD) in the social and behavioral sciences, or in a biomedical field;
• commitment to and preferably experience with multidisciplinary research to answer social science research questions;
• good knowledge and experience in longitudinal research methods and/or experience in conducting randomized experiments, preferably in the field;
• interest in charitable giving or prosocial behavior;
• demonstrated commitment to principles of data and methods transparency
• excellent oral and written command of English. Knowledge of the Dutch language is not required
• team spirit and good communication skills

As a university, we strive for equal opportunities for all, recognising that diversity takes many forms. We believe that diversity in all its complexity is invaluable for the quality of our teaching, research and service. We are always looking for talent with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This also means that we are committed to creating an inclusive community so that we can use diversity as an asset.

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

Salary Benefits:

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of minimum € 4.537,00 (Scale 11) and maximum € 6.209,00 (Scale 11) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile Researcher 3. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for at least 0.8 FTE and a maximum of 3 years. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. Upon good performance, the contract can be extended with an additional 2 years.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
• contribution to commuting expenses
• a wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge

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