The Agri-food & Agri-environmental Economics Group of ETH Zurich(www.afee.ethz.ch) invites applications for a Ph.D position.

The successful candidate will implement a research project on the weather insurance design. The project will be financed by SwissNational Science Foundation and an ETHZurich internal PhD-grant. The objective of the project is to enhance the methodology of the weather insurance contract design considering conditions of limited relevance and applicability of historical data. The project will focus on the application of extremal dependence analysis and elaboration of the methodology for the utilization of a priori information available in the form of climate change projections. The project will be conducted based on historical data, climate change projections and results of crop simulation models for Kazakhstan where grain producers are especially prone to risk of drought.

The basic requirements are:

• A master degree in Mathematics, Economics, Agricultural Economics;
• Strong background in Probability Theory and quantitative methods;
• Programming skills;
• Good command of spoken and written English;As the project will be implemented in collaboration with the scientists from Russia and Kazakhstan, knowledge of Russian would be an asset but is not a prerequisite.

Please send your application including CV, two letters of recommendation and (if possible) a copy of the Master thesis by January 15, 2010 to Dr. Raushan Bokusheva at the following postal address:

ETH Zurich
Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED)
Agri-Food and Agri-Environmental Economics Group
SOL C9 Sonneggstr. 33 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

Website: www.afee.ethz.ch/positions/ETH_PhD-Position_Weather-Insurance_Design

The earliest starting date of this position would be February 1, 2010.

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Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to ensure the above information is current and correct. However, applicants should contact the appropriate administering body before making an application, as details do change frequently.