Reforming Economic Policy

During the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic while graduating, I was asked if I wanted to work with a small group of young economists on innovative ideas and concrete policy proposals. I said yes and, in the first months, we published a report proposing and analysing green stimulus options as well as a survey among Dutch economists on fiscal policy which had a considerable impact on the public debate.

In the following months, we consulted Dutch youth on their ideas about the future and participated in the Future of Capitalism dialogue series with important global thinkers as part of the Future Markets Consultation led by prof. Govert Buijs and former Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende. These activities resulted in the publication of two reports, respectively on the wellbeing economy and welfare state.

Together with Hendrik Noten (author of the best-seller Fantoomgroei), Rens van Tilburg (director of the Sustainable Finance Lab) and Donald Pols (director of Friends of the Earth Netherlands), we brought together a coalition of green, labour, industry and youth organizations around an investment proposal for a just transition in the Netherlands, parts of which have become government policy.

Together with Vinzenz Ziesemer (former senior economist at the Dutch Ministry of Finance), we created the new think tank focused on Dutch fiscal and tax policy called ‘Instituut voor Publieke Economie’ (IPE). Both IPE and Our New Economy (ONE) are part of the young European Macro Policy Network (EMPN) led by the German macro-finance institute Dezernat Zukunft.