Postdoctoral Researcher / Scientific Collaborator: Social Production Satellite Account for Switzerland — Universität Zürich

Full description

UZH Healthy Longevity Center

Start of employment by arrangement following selection, temporary

Social production is a macroeconomic indicator that extends the national accounts beyond GDP by placing a monetary value on unpaid socially productive activity that creates genuine social, environmental, and economic value but remains invisible in the current economic frame – including care work, volunteering, civic participation, mentoring, ecological stewardship, and contributions to open knowledge. Its measurement gives governments a macro signal for the challenges of this era, allowing a non-market productive capacity (that performs a load-bearing function within formal systems) to be tracked, evaluated, and protected from depletion as nations manage ageing populations, fiscal pressure, and the sustainability of health and care systems. The method has been demonstrated through research-based proof-of-concept studies in Australia, the United States, and Norway, but no statistical office has yet brought it into the national accounts as a satellite account. This position would lead the work to establish a pilot Social Production Satellite Account for Switzerland, the first of its kind, aligned with FSO national accounting conventions and built on data the office already holds. It is a defined, high-visibility programme that would establish Swiss leadership in the field and a model for other national statistical offices. The project will also use these measures to examine how productive contribution changes across the lifecourse, including the contribution of older people, providing a new empirical basis for understanding healthy longevity and the economic implications of population ageing. Therefore the role combines two functions. First, the postholder will establish a pilot Social Production Satellite Account for Switzerland, aligning the established social production methodology with Swiss national accounting conventions and the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) and international System of National Accounts (SNA). Second, they will apply the resulting measures to examine how productive contribution changes across the lifecourse, including the contribution of older people, providing a new empirical basis for understanding healthy longevity and the economic implications of population ageing. The post is jointly hosted by the FSO National Accounts Section and the UZH Centre for Healthy Longevity and is connected to a research team at the University of Sydney. The underlying method was developed by the University of Sydney's Mental Wealth Initiative with input from a broad range of international institutional and multilateral collaborators and has been peer reviewed and published.

Your responsibilities

• Aligning the established social production method with European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), adapting how it is applied and reported while preserving the underlying methodology.
• Mapping the social production categories to available SAKE data, assessing coverage, and conducting a gap analysis of categories not yet captured.
• Compiling and analysing the relevant Swiss data sources to produce the pilot account's first estimates.
• Building the account into a working statistical product, documented and reproducible so that it could be updated on a regular cycle by Switzerland and/or other nations wishing to adopt the approach.
• Co-authoring research and policy outputs, including a joint report on social production in Switzerland.
• Preparing a methodological report setting out options to extend category coverage, with recommendations for Switzerland and a generalisable approach that other national statistical offices could follow.
• Applying the resulting social production measures to examine productive contribution across the lifecourse, with particular attention to the contributions of older people and the implications for healthy longevity and measures of demographic dependency.
• Working in person within the National Accounts Division and liaising across FSO units to resolve questions of definition, derivation, and method.
• Maintaining reproducible workflows and documentation consistent with official statistics standards.
• Designing and teaching of two seminars per year (one per semester) at UZH Department of Psychology on interdisciplinary topics bridging economics and aging research.

Your profile

Essential

• A degree in economics at undergraduate or postgraduate level.
• Strong quantitative analytical skills and demonstrated ability to analyse and interpret economic, survey or official statistical data.
• A good understanding of macroeconomic measurement and national accounting concepts, with the ability to interpret and apply statistical and accounting conventions.
• An interest in economic and social measurement, including the measurement of non-market production and/or social metrics.
• A translational research orientation, comfortable working across an academic research team and a national statistical office and communicating with policy audiences.
• Strong written communication skills and the ability to produce clear, rigorous analytical and technical reports.
• Fluency in English.

Desirable

• Familiarity with the System of National Accounts (SNA) and/or European System of Accounts (ESA), including experience with or knowledge of satellite accounting.
• An interest in the application of economic and social measurement to healthy longevity, demographic change, the care economy, fiscal sustainability, and the intersection of market and non-market production.
• Experience with time-use surveys or unpaid-work modules in labour force surveys.
• Experience working with survey microdata or other official statistical data.
• Experience with time-series, price or index methods, including constant-price adjustment.
• Experience working in or with a statistical office or national accounts setting.
• Proficiency in statistical software such as R, Stata, Python or equivalent.
• A record of peer-reviewed publication and technical reporting.
• Working proficiency in German or French.

What we offer

• The opportunity to build the first social production satellite account established within a national statistical office, an innovation in national accounting with international reach.
• A role embedded in official statistics while contributing to frontier research, with training in the social production accounting method from the University of Sydney's Mental Wealth Initiative.
• Support through co-supervision across the three partners and connection to an international research and policy network spanning ageing, health, and economic measurement.
• Employment on University of Zurich terms, with salary set according to UZH and Canton of Zurich guidelines for postdoctoral researchers.
• A clearly defined three-year horizon to deliver a programme of work with direct policy relevance.

Working arrangement and independence

The position is employed and funded by the University of Zurich Healthy Longevity Centre. Working time is divided between the FSO National Accounts Division in Neuchâtel, where the day-to-day work sits, and the UZH Centre for Healthy Longevity, with research supervision shared between the partners under a light joint-oversight arrangement. The teaching activities will be delivered on site at UZH. A clear separation is maintained between FSO-hosted research and official statistics, and no output carries the FSO's name without its approval. The underlying method is published and open.

What we offer

Our employees benefit from a wide range of attractive offers. Find out more: https://www.uzh.ch/de/explore/work.html.

What we offer

Work-Life Balance

• Flexible working models (such as part-time positions, mobile working, job-sharing)
• Childcare at the kihz foundation of UZH and ETH

More Learning and Development

• Wide range of continuing education courses of UZH and the Canton of Zurich
• Language Center run jointly with ETH Zurich

Food

• Food and drinks at reduced prices in the UZH cafeterias
• Lunch-Check-card with UZH contribution

Healthcare

• Special conditions on the Academic Sports Association ASVZ
• Free seasonal flu vaccinations
• Rest and relaxation at the quiet room in the university tower

Discounts

• Private traffic: Carsharing, rent a vehicle, parking space
• Digitalization: Hardware, software, mobile phone subscriptions

Conditions of Employment

• Policies of the UZH
• Most UZH staff are employed according to public law

International Services

• Support for people from outside Switzerland

Campuses

• Campuses Zurich City, Zurich Irchel, Oerlikon and Schlieren
• Sites Zurich West, Old Botanical Garden, Botanical Garden and Lengg

Working at UZH

The University of Zurich, Switzerland's largest university, offers a range of attractive positions in various subject areas and professional fields. With around 10,000 employees and currently 12 professional apprenticeship streams the University offers an inspiring working environment on cutting-edge research and top-class education. Put your talent and skills to work with us. Find out more about UZH as an employer! More