Konrad Burchardi
@konradburchardi.bsky.social
1.4K followers 420 following 65 posts
Professor of Economics at IIES, Stockholm
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konradburchardi.bsky.social
7. The interviews are a good opportunity to clarify any doubts which might exist about the feasibility of the project or its contribution to existing knowledge. But they are really short. Make good use of the time, be to the point. Good idea to prepare some back-up slides.
konradburchardi.bsky.social
You need to have a credible plan for actually moving the centre of our research to one of the ERC associated countries!
konradburchardi.bsky.social
6. You can apply for an ERC grant even if you are currently not working in one of the ERC associated countries. ERC grants are also meant to attract the best people to come to Europe to do their research, and everybody loves the idea of being able to do that. Just one thing:
konradburchardi.bsky.social
You will get no credit for that part of the project, and the residual application is almost surely weaker than it could have been. (Plus if the application does not make it explicit that the work has largely been completed, it seems like you want to fool the evaluators.)
konradburchardi.bsky.social
5. Absolutely do not apply with work which has already been completed, exists in working paper format or has been presented around! At best the related budget will not be approved.
konradburchardi.bsky.social
“I will try to obtain contract-level data from all life-insurance companies” or “I will develop an identification strategy” are not the kind of risks the ERC wants to take. (I am exaggerating, nobody wrote this.)
konradburchardi.bsky.social
4. But also make sure to describe why your project is feasible. Example points for empirical projects: explain how you can access data, how representative it is for the population of interest, how data can be merged across sources, or what exactly your identification strategy is.
konradburchardi.bsky.social
3. The ERC wants to fund research that has the potential to make significant progress on important questions, and are willing to take risks. So make sure your project is ambitious! This is really the core of what is being evaluated by the panel and the external report writers.
konradburchardi.bsky.social
2. The group of people with CVs satisfying that condition is large, and only few of them seem to apply for an ERC grant. So if you are in the group and apply, your chances of receiving an ERC Starting Grant are good!
konradburchardi.bsky.social
The CV is important, but as signal of the applicant’s ability to implement the proposed work. It should provide evidence of independent (read: without supervisors and seniors) and excellent (read: published in good general interest journals, not necessarily top-5) research.
konradburchardi.bsky.social
1. There is a common perception that the ERC Starting Grants reward great CVs. That’s wrong. The evaluation is primarily forward-looking: the panel is asked to identify the most promising projects.
konradburchardi.bsky.social
In 2021 and 2023 I had the chance to serve on the @ERC_Research Starting Grant evaluation panel. There are a couple of things I learned that might be helpful to future applicants. I guess some points apply to other grants as well.
konradburchardi.bsky.social
We are open to a broad set of backgrounds. Strong applicants will have good knowledge of STATA and Python.

Interested? Great! Please apply via this link by uploading your CV and a short letter explaining why you are interested in the position: tinyurl.com/4kr2nj92
Work with us - Institute for International Economic Studies
Are you interested in applying for a job at Stockholm University?
tinyurl.com
konradburchardi.bsky.social
2. Additionally I am looking for a full-time research assistant to support my current and upcoming work on development economics. This work will involve occasional travel to coordinate field experiments, and it is supported by the @erc.europa.eu.
konradburchardi.bsky.social
💥Research Assistant Positions💥

1. Ingvild Almås, Timo Boppart, Thor Berger, Hannes Malmberg, and I are looking for a research assistant to work on a project which investigates Sweden's spectacular economic growth during the late 19th century using establishment-level data.
Reposted by Konrad Burchardi
iies.su.se
The @reveconstudies.bsky.social (REStud) invites every year some of the world's most promising young researchers in economics to present their work around Europe.

We were proud to host the REStud Tour 2025 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences earlier this week.
Reposted by Konrad Burchardi
iies.su.se
The Review of Economic Studies Tour 2025 will stop over at IIES on the 13th of May. We are much looking forward to welcome some of the discipline's most promising young researchers to Stockholm and hear about their work.

sites.google.com/view/restudt...
Reposted by Konrad Burchardi
georgweizsaecker.bsky.social
US academia is unparalleled in the welfare it creates.

But US academia is now under attack and other countries, like Germany, have to keep the flame alive for a while. It will make them more innovative.

See our guest article in @spiegel.de, translated. 👇

www.hertie-school.org/en/news/allc...
Giving US researchers a new home
Amid growing pressure from the US government, Hertie School President Cornelia Woll co-authors op-ed arguing that German institutions have the opportunity to support world-class researchers.
www.hertie-school.org
Reposted by Konrad Burchardi
iies.su.se
Congratulations to IIES alumnus David Yanagizawa-Drott and Julia Cagé on winning the prestigious Yrjö Jahnsson Award 2025! Their work shows how media shapes political beliefs and underscores the need for media independence in democracy. www.eeassoc.org/awards/yrjo-...
konradburchardi.bsky.social
I hear that many leading researchers currently based at US institutions are thinking of leaving the country.

It seems to me a fantastic opportunity for Europe to make a big investment in research and attract those people to come here. 🇪🇺
konradburchardi.bsky.social
Interesting! Do you know whether this comes with an increase or decrease in the companies' valuations?
Reposted by Konrad Burchardi
annastansbury.bsky.social
What happens to companies who get more powerful institutional shareholders?

CEO pay falls by a cumulative 60% over 5 years
Top execs by 40%

Striking endorsement of the view that strong shareholders help solve the principal agent problem

Paper by Falato, Kim & von Wachter
konradburchardi.bsky.social
Hej @erikangner.com. In my mind many of those issues are too serious to be sorted out by laymen judges. Why don't you think they should be "sorted out by the courts"?
konradburchardi.bsky.social
I am so happy that my friend and colleague Arash Nekoei managed to secure the generous ERC support for his fantastically interesting work! 🥳🇪🇺