Postdoctoral Fellow Position

The Singapore-ETH Center (SEC) was established in 2011 by the ETH Zurich and the National Research Foundation (NRF) to conduct Interdisciplinary Research on pressing problems. In collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and Singapore Management University (SMU), SEC is undertaking a research programme on "Future Resilient Systems", providing an opportunity for 30 PhD students and 25 PostDoc researchers to get a PhD degree and/or to strengthen their research skills in an inspiring cross-disciplinary research environment. Within this framework we are announcing the following job opening.

Postdoctoral Fellow Position

Economic and social activities more and more depend upon communication and transaction execution infrastructures. This is prompting increasing concerns, both in terms of the consequences of potential break-downs and in terms of the resources needed to improve infrastructure supply and resilience. Policy-makers and regulators can choose between two approaches when addressing these issues. They can constrain infrastructure design and transaction flows ex ante so as to make the infrastructure robust against disruptive events. Or they can create a regulatory ex-post regime which makes it unattractive for infrastructure operators and users to engage in undesired behavior that makes the infrastructure prone to disruptions. The Policy Designs for IT Infrastructures project explores the tradeoffs between these regulatory choices. In particular, it will focus on the legal, economic and technical implications of regulatory choices regarding the regulation of financial trading platforms as well as Internet security, privacy, and network neutrality. Principal Investigators: Profs. Stefan Bechtold and Gerard Hertig, both with the Center for Law & Economics at ETH Zurich (www.lawecon.ethz.ch)

The postdoctoral researcher will contribute to the development of the project’s theoretical framework and to data collection and analysis. He or she will be based in Singapore, with close connections to the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Center for Law & Economics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. The postdoctoral researcher will have 4 main areas of responsibility. 1) Develop theoretical and/or empirical frameworks and analyses on the general question of policy design for IT infrastructures and/or specific applications; 2) Coordinate research efforts among project participants and take the lead for one of the project’s specific contribution; 3) Collect general information and specific data on Asia- based infrastructures; 4) Develop close connections with Singapore-based institutions, in particular SNU/NTU/SMU and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Nr of positions available : 1

Research Fields

Computer science 
Economics - Environmental economics
- Financial science
- Industrial economics
- Management studies
Juridical sciences - Environmental law
- Finance law
- International law
- Public law
Technology - Environmental technology
Political sciences 
Sociology - Socio-economic research

Career Stage

Experienced researcher or 4-10 yrs (Post-Doc) 

Research Profiles

Not defined

Application Deadline

31/05/2015