Matthijs Oosterveen

A set of tools to tackle the most urgent economic policy questions that society faces today

Steven Levitt writes “Since the science of economics is primarily a set of tools, as opposed to a subject matter, then no subject, however offbeat, need be beyond its reach”. This master specialisation equips you with exactly these set of tools to tackle the most urgent economic policy questions that society faces today: from rising health care cost to the ongoing slow growth of the Eurozone.

This specialisation is different from any other master due to its two outstanding seminars. In the first seminar, you tackle to the core-question of almost every econometric analysis in economics: does x have a causal effect upon y? For example, does a rise in the minimum wage truly causes an employer to cut employment, or does reducing class size increase student performance? In the second seminar you use the tools to find the answer for an urgent economic policy problem. In my academic year, we discussed the Eurozone crisis. By discussing papers, analysing (theoretical) mechanisms and related empirical work, I delved into the problem of competitiveness.

My career so far

The programme had a major positive impact on my career. After completing an internship at the Ministry of Education, which involved writing my master thesis, I concluded I wanted to continue in academia. I am currently a PhD-candidate at Erasmus School of Economics. In my research I address the policy questions and use the economic tools I discovered during the master program.

During my internship at the Ministry of Education, I noticed the policy arena is in need for economic advisers that can deliver well-founded policy analyses. Being able to give the economic and scientific arguments for why and how the government should intervene is an invaluable quality for a policy maker.