PhD-position: Quantitative approach to Fin Ec Crime Prevention & Discrimination

The project: Financial institutions are obliged to perform tasks related to financial economic crime (FEC) such as anti-money laundering, sanctions evasion and terrorism financing. These are crucially important yet challenging tasks. First, they require considerable resources (e.g., costs, employees, IT infrastructure, specialized training). Second, they may require the use of quantitative models, data analysis, and algorithms, but these applications must also safeguard the data privacy and non-discrimination rights of their clients. This topic will become even more relevant in the current age with the dawn of AI.

The central research question is whether non-discrimination requirements generate boundary conditions for the efficient and effective fulfillment of FEC prevention objectives. In other words, how do FEC prevention objectives and regulation align with non-discrimination objectives?

Examining this possible tension can have fundamental implications not only for policy-design, regulation, and banking operations, but also for the general (public) view on the cost and benefit tradeoffs regarding FEC prevention, data privacy and the risk on discrimination.

This PhD position will be funded by ING, but the research project is completely independent and entirely performed at the VU.

Your duties

As a PhD candidate, you are expected to conduct thorough literature reviews, conduct statistical or simulation-based research, and understand analytical models. Depending on your background, you will take courses to reinforce the necessary skills. All this should lead to the development of at least three manuscripts that can be published in very good academic journals. To strengthen your skills and profile for a possible academic career, you will for a small amount of time participate in the Accounting department’s teaching program in the last 2 years of the contract, with the opportunity to obtain a basic qualification teaching certificate (known as BKO).

Requirements

Academic background including a Research Master or Master of Science title in the areas of econometrics, mathematics, data science, business analytics, economics, criminology, political science, social psychology, or other fields that allow you to: understand and apply quantitative (statistical, econometrical, analytical) methods, understand regulation-related theory and practice; motivation to do high quality research with the aim of publishing articles in very good academic journals; communication and interpersonal skills required to discuss relevant topics with industry partners, researchers, and regulators; strong skills in academic writing and reading comprehension; high proficiency in the English language; proficiency in the Dutch language is a plus; experience with, or proven interest in regulation regarding financial economic crime and/or operational processes linked to these regulations is a plus.

Conditions of employment

Fixed-term contract: 1 year. 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 € 3.059,00 and maximum € 3.881,00 gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment; an employment contract of initially 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. Your dissertation at the end of the fourth year forms the end of your employment contract.