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PhD Position ‘Financial Economics of Slavery’ (University of Groningen) – deadline 29 January 2025
The University of Groningen is looking for a PhD candidate on the topic of ‘Financial Economics of Slavery’ within the NWO-funded project ‘Collateral damage: The financial economics of slavery’, supervised by Professor Abe de Jong (University of Groningen), in cooperation with Dr Tim Kooijmans (RMIT University) and Professor Peter Koudijs (New York University). The PhD position is embedded in the research programme Economics, Econometrics and Finance of FEB’s Research Institute.
This project aims to understand an underexposed aspect of slavery: the financial economics involved. Did the availability of finance, and the use of enslaved people as collateral, stimulate the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the use of slave labor on plantations? Did finance have long-term consequences for the enslaved people and their freed descendants? The project will apply advanced empirical methods (e.g. structural estimation) in finance and economics to study these questions in the context of Surinam and the adjoining colonies of Demerara and Essequibo in the 18th and 19th centuries. New data will be collected and combined with existing databases to provide new insights into how financial systems affected slavery and the lives of enslaved people. The aim is to contribute to societal debates about the causes, immediate effects, and long-term consequences of slavery.
Applications should be submitted ultimately 29 January 2025.
