PhD Fellowship in Economics and Health Economics – Mobility Sufficiency and Policy Evaluation Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium

The Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) invites applications for a fully funded 4-year PhD Fellowship in Economics and Health Economics, embedded within the interdisciplinary ARC project LESS4MORE (Leveraging Individual and Collective Engagement in Sufficiency Strategies for Mobility). The position is based at the Center for Applied Public Economics (CAPE) and the Institute of Economic and Social Research (IRES), offering a unique opportunity to contribute to high-impact research at the intersection of economics, health, sustainability, and public policy.

The LESS4MORE project addresses the urgent challenge of decarbonizing personal mobility, focusing on sufficiency-based strategies that complement technological innovation. The project integrates psychology, engineering, law, and economics to develop and evaluate mobility sufficiency scenarios, aiming to ensure broad social acceptance and equitable distribution of economic, health, and welfare impacts. Scenarios include regulatory and fiscal instruments such as low-emission zones, road-pricing, and fiscal incentives for sustainable transport, all assessed for legal feasibility, distributional consequences, and welfare effects.

The PhD candidate will focus on evaluating the welfare and health impacts of sufficiency-oriented mobility scenarios, with particular attention to their distributional consequences across population groups and effects on health and social inequalities. The research will also assess the economic sustainability of these measures through comprehensive cost-benefit analysis, integrating healthcare, environmental, and welfare outcomes. The candidate will engage with stakeholders and policymakers to refine insights and contribute to policy translation within Belgian frameworks.

Methodologically, the project leverages the Beamm platform (Belgian Arithmetic Microsimulation Model, https://beamm.brussels/), enabling microsimulation-based projections of mobility and fiscal scenarios enriched with socioeconomic, health, and behavioural data. The research combines large-scale data collection and harmonization, microsimulation of fiscal and mobility policies, nonparametric inequality analysis, and cost-benefit analysis with equity-sensitive welfare weights. A central goal is to identify population segments disproportionately affected by sufficiency measures and design accompanying policies to enhance equity and social acceptability.

The candidate will join a highly interdisciplinary team, collaborating with researchers in engineering, law, psychology, and economics. Supervisors include Prof. Hélène Latzer (public economics, UCLouvain Saint-Louis/IRIS-L) and Prof. Sandy Tubeuf (health economics and public health, UCLouvain/IRSS-LIDAM). The research environment offers strong connections with policy stakeholders and societal actors, fostering impactful research on sustainability, health, and public economics.

Applicants must hold a Master’s degree in economics, public economics, health economics, environmental economics, econometrics, or a closely related field. Essential qualifications include solid training in quantitative methods (econometrics, microeconomics, applied statistics), programming skills (R, Stata, or Python), and prior empirical economic research experience. Experience with microsimulation models, distributional analysis, or cost-benefit analysis is a strong asset. Additional training in applied econometrics, causal inference, health econometrics, or microeconometrics is a plus. Motivation for interdisciplinary research and familiarity with the Belgian institutional or fiscal context (or willingness to develop it) are expected. Good command of English is required; knowledge of French and/or Dutch is an asset. Applicants must provide three letters of recommendation, including at least two from academic supervisors.

The position starts on 1 October 2026. The application deadline is 1 June 2026. Interviews will be held in June 2026, with final decisions communicated in early July 2026. The fellowship offers a competitive salary, access to a high-level interdisciplinary research environment, and opportunities for policy engagement and societal impact.

To apply, submit a CV, cover letter, academic transcripts, three letters of recommendation (at least two from academic supervisors), and a sample of scientific writing (if available) in a single PDF. Email the PDF to [email protected] and [email protected] with the subject 'Application ECON — PhD LESS4MORE'. For further information, contact the supervisors directly.