Several PhD positions for genoeconomics are available as part of a joint research initiative of Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Amsterdam. Genoeconomics is a newly emerging research field that investigates the molecular genetic architecture of economic preferences (e.g. risk preferences, time discounting) and important lifetime outcomes (e.g. educational attainment, happiness, self-employment). This research could be transformative for the social sciences by providing new tools and insights to study the causes of behaviors and outcomes.

Furthermore, the results of this research can inform medical research by identifying relevant causal pathways for disease outcomes (e.g. cognition-related or cardio-vascular diseases) that can help to identify individuals at risk early on. The PhD candidates will be embedded in an international, interdisciplinary research team that spearheads this new research field.

Keywords

Behavioral genetics, microeconomics, molecular genetics, genoeconomics




ERIM Reference

ERIM PhD 2013 Geneconomics


Topic

Twin and family studies show that a broad range of psychological traits, economic preferences, and social and economic outcomes are moderately heritable. Discovery of genetic variants associated with such outcomes can lead to new insights into the causal pathways underlying human behaviour, including the complex interplay of environmental and genetic factors. Thus, social scientists, including economists and management scholars, have begun to look to genetics to inform their work.