Sandy Tubeuf

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.

The Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) is offering a fully funded 4-year PhD Fellowship in Economics / 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), with dual supervision by Prof. Hélène Latzer and Prof. Sandy Tubeuf. The research environment is highly interdisciplinary, connecting economics, health, sustainability, and public policy, and offers strong links to policy stakeholders and societal actors. The LESS4MORE project addresses the challenge of sustainable mobility in the context of climate transition, focusing on sufficiency-based strategies that complement technological innovation. The project integrates psychology, engineering, law, and economics to develop legally grounded and empirically calibrated mobility sufficiency scenarios for Belgium. These scenarios are evaluated for their environmental, economic, social, and health impacts, with the aim of producing actionable policy recommendations that foster mobility sufficiency and equity. The PhD candidate will contribute to the economics and health economics components, specifically by evaluating the welfare and health impacts of sufficiency-oriented mobility scenarios and assessing their economic sustainability through comprehensive cost-benefit analysis. The research will leverage the Beamm platform (Belgian Arithmetic Microsimulation Model), an open-access tax-benefit microsimulation model developed by CAPE, to project mobility and fiscal scenarios enriched with socioeconomic, health, and behavioral data. The project employs a multi-method approach, including 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 objective is to uncover how sufficiency measures affect different population groups, particularly those who may be disproportionately burdened, and to design accompanying measures that enhance equity and social acceptability. The interdisciplinary team includes experts in engineering, psychology, law, and economics, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation that integrates legal, behavioral, and environmental perspectives. The ideal candidate will have a Master’s degree in economics or a closely related field, strong quantitative and programming skills, experience in empirical economic research, and motivation for interdisciplinary work. Knowledge of the Belgian institutional context and proficiency in English are required; French and/or Dutch are assets. Applicants should 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. The selection process includes pre-selection and interviews, with final decisions communicated in early July 2026. This fellowship offers access to a high-level research environment, opportunities for collaboration across disciplines, and the chance to contribute to impactful research on sustainability, health, and public economics. The position starts on 1 October 2026, with interviews scheduled for June 2026. For further information, contact Prof. Hélène Latzer or Prof. Sandy Tubeuf.