Student research assistant to join empirical research project on economics of religion

The Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), invites candidates for a position as a student research assistant in an empirical research project in the economics of religion field.

The position is for 1 year and 10-15 hours weekly. The expected start date is February 1st or as soon as possible thereafter.

Introduction
In this position, you will join a team of researchers at the Department of Economics. You will help us conduct research within the economics of religion field. Specifically, we examine the impact of religion on economic factors using shocks to religion as natural experiments. We will exploit data on millions of individuals and companies across the globe or within Denmark to explore how religion influences factors, such as the development of science, gender roles, and economic growth. The project contributes to a growing international literature examining the causes and consequences of religion. More broadly, the project is part of a tendency in the social sciences to focus on cultural values as an important determinant of social factors.

The position is located within the Macroeconomics and the Historical Record (MEHR) group in the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen.

Your competences and responsibilities
We expect you to be a student in economics, computer science, social data science, or data-economics (Danish: datalogi-økonomi) and to have a solid interest in working with large quantitative datasets.

You will be assisting with a) gathering large unstructured data using different methods such as web scraping or document data extraction, or by structuring existing digitized data, b) cleaning, merging, and visualizing these data, and c) analyzing these data using econometric techniques, Natural Language Processing, and/or network analysis. It is not a requirement that you master these methods already. Instead, the most important requirement is that you have worked with data before and have an interest in learning these types of methods and the substantive questions they are used to answer. You may also assist in econometric analysis and literature reviews, but this is not a requirement.

Your opportunities
As a research assistant in our group, you will learn:

• Experience in handling and analyzing large datasets
• Familiarity with methods used to conduct empirical research in social science
• Exposure to scholarship in political economy, economics of religion, and economic history
• Exposure to the growing field of economics of religion
• Active involvement in all steps of the research process

If you are interested, the position prepares you for an application for a PhD position (this is not required, though).

Strategy of the Faculty of the Social Sciences
The Department of Economics is part of the Faculty of the Social Sciences. The Faculty is a successful academic community that strives to put knowledge into action by:

• Engaging partners in the co-creation of knowledge, learning and social change.
• Empowering our students to become reflective and responsible citizens who have the vision, the knowledge and the competence to change society for the better.
• Energizing global, European and Danish communities of knowledge by innovating research methodologies and by research findings with impact

Terms of Employment
Appointment and salary will be according to the current agreement between the Ministry of Finance and HK, and is positioned as a student-HK. The minimum wage is DKK 142,97 (1 November 2025 level). Salary will be based on seniority.

In order to be considered for the position, you must be enrolled as a student at university level.

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/

Contact information
Information about the recruitment process is available from HR, e-mail: [email protected], please refer to ID number: 211-1573/25-2B #2

Additional information about the position can be obtained from Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, e-mail: [email protected].

How to Apply
Submit a complete application at our online portal. Click on the “Apply now” icon at the bottom of the page to apply. The documents must be in Adobe PDF or Word.

Your application can be written in either Danish or English and must include the following documents:

• Motivated application
• Curriculum vitae
• Grades in courses taken so far
• Other relevant material: Bachelor thesis or other hand-ins showcasing your skills.

The closing date for applications is January 10, 23:59 [CEST/CET/Danish time].
Applications or enclosures received thereafter will not be considered.

Københavns Universitet giver sine knap 10.000 medarbejdere muligheder for at udnytte deres talent fuldt ud i et ambitiøst, uformelt miljø. Vi sikrer traditionsrige og moderne rammer om uddannelser og fri forskning på højt internationalt niveau. Vi søger svar og løsninger på fælles problemer og gør ny viden tilgængelig og nyttig for andre.

Info
Ansøgningsfrist: 10-01-2026

Ansættelsesdato: 01-02-2026

Afdeling/Sted: Department of Economics