Jonneke Bolhaar appointed Professor of Economic Policy, Human Capital and Labour at Erasmus School of Economics

The chair Economic Policy, Human Capital and Labour focuses on building a strong relationship between on the one hand high quality research and education and on the other hand the practice of economic policy. This may yield gains which can be considered as societal impact in the spirit of Jan Tinbergen: applying economic theory and empirics for solving real world problems.

Patrick Groenen, Dean of Erasmus School of Economics, reacts: "With the appointment of Jonneke Bolhaar at our School, we are bridging the academic world with the world of economic policymaking. It increases the societal impact of our research and feeds policy questions into our education and research."

Jonneke Bolhaar is confident that education and research at Erasmus School of Economics can profit from her knowledge on current and upcoming policy discussions and her connections: "Students have their backpack full of theoretical knowledge and econometrical skills, but still have to learn how you can combine all this knowledge to formulate a research question that has relevance for society, explain what an economist’ perspective can possibly contribute to this question and think of empirical strategies to investigate it. As a professor of practice, I want to stimulate students to start working on this skill."

In her research Jonneke Bolhaar focuses on inequality and the role of policy in alleviating, or -unintendedly- enhancing inequality: "For long, the mostly American literature on inequality of opportunity was thought of to be not that relevant for The Netherlands. But the past years it has become clear that also in the Netherlands there is inequality of opportunity, and that it may have substantial effects on outcomes."

Bolhaar also wants to contribute to (the valorisation of) the work of other researchers at Erasmus School of Economics: ‘My goal is to bring research from staff members under the attention of policy makers and establish connections between researchers at Erasmus School of Economics and CPB, who are working on the same topic.’

About Jonneke Bolhaar                   

After a research master at the Tinbergen Institute, Jonneke Bolhaar obtained her PhD from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She has a strong academic profile, as shown by her recent publications in top economics peer reviewed journals (AEJ: Applied Economics and Journal of Public Economics) in the past 5 years.

Bolhaar is also a very strong and influential policy advisor, as exemplified by her fast-paced career at the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis since 2014. In 2020 she was promoted to Head of Department Labour, Education and Innovation and in this capacity, she is a member of the CPB’s Management Team.