Offer Description
Prof. Pierre Magontier is looking to hire a research assistant to work with him at the Barcelona School of Economics on a project studying how signaling flood-risk affects spatial sorting.
The geographic distribution of economic activity reflects both the impact of shocks and the adaptive responses they trigger. While floods typically disrupt local economies, evidence (e.g., Kocornik-Mina et al., 2020; Tellman et al., 2021; Maruyama et al., 2022; Magontier & Martínez-Mazza, 2025) shows that flood-prone areas have not systematically fallen behind safer regions. This suggests that adaptation—through reconstruction, regulation, or new investment—can offset or even reverse damages. Theoretical work (Bilal & Rossi-Hansberg, 2025; Balboni, 2025; Henkel et al., 2025) further emphasizes that local adaptation, information, and policy responses shape the spatial distribution of economic activity under climate risk. Yet little is known about how these dynamics operate before disasters occur. Most studies focus on realized shocks and recovery, leaving unclear how risk information or mitigation policies affect investment and development in exposed areas.
We exploit the introduction of Áreas con Riesgo Potencial Significativo de Inundación (ARPSI)—zones of potential significant flood risk—created under the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC). The directive, transposed into Spanish law through Royal Decree 903/2010 and reinforced in later updates (notably 2018–2019), required systematic flood-risk mapping and zoning restrictions, updated every six years. ARPSI designations altered both perceived risk and local development rules, providing quasi-exogenous variation in the disclosure and regulation of flood risk across space and time.
Our research will combine new administrative and geospatial data to study how these designations affected construction, land use, and property markets. We are assembling:
- The full history of ARPSI maps, including boundaries and update dates.
- Building- and cadastral-level data for all Spanish municipalities, with information on year of construction, height, use, and distance to ARPSI and water bodies.
- Property-transaction data, linking risk information to market behavior.
The candidate will be supervised by Prof. Pierre Magontier. The successful applicant should have expertise in data management, GIS, and econometrics. These tasks are essential for constructing the identification design and measuring the anticipatory adaptation effects that are central to the project’s contribution to the economic geography of risk and adaptation. Ideally, the successful applicant should have a good knowledge of the Spanish language and institutions.
The applicant will join a vibrant Economics community in Barcelona and have opportunities to get involved with the academic life at the Barcelona School of Economics. This is a 4-month position starting on September 2026, (with a possible extension of one more month based on available funding and performance). The annual gross salary is 22.020€. (reference for full-time RA)
The project is one of the BSE Seed Grants 2026, one of the initiatives of the Severo Ochoa accreditation, supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) through the Severo Ochoa Program: Grant «Excelencia Severo Ochoa» CEX2024-001476-S funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/.
About BSE hiring policies: Barcelona School of Economics has endorsed the 40 principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers and committed to the implementation of the HRS4R for the research jobs at BSE.
Where to apply
Website: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScoOjfBVgCJ3h3COUvfe5ms7OzmLpCQPCNuIXu…
Skills/Qualifications
- Analytical skills
- Proficiency in programming languages (R, Stata, Julia, Python)
Specific Requirements
- Strong knowledge of Spanish institutions
- Collaborative, collegial and excited to work with diverse teams
- Highly self-motivated and able to take initiative without much supervision
- Spanish working permit (recommended, not a NO GO factor)
Additional Information
Benefits
- Good research and learning environment
- Work flexibility
Eligibility criteria
Based on:
- Programming Skills (50%),
- Experience (20%)
- Qualifications and Skills/Knowledge of the area (30%)
Selection process
Interested candidates should fill in the form and attach one single file named as: “Job offer Title_Lastname_Firstname” with the CV and a motivation letter.
Additional comments
Job vacancy advertisement is posted EURAXESS.
Position reference: SG2026-02 – Research Assistant
When the application period ends, the selection committee will select the candidates that meet the selection criteria. Shortlisted applicants will be contacted via email to arrange an online
Website for additional job details: https://bse.eu/research/job-openings
