Professor of Applied Economics
Barbara Baarsma is a professor of applied economics at the University of Amsterdam. Barbara is frequently invited to participate in committees to think about policy issues for ministers.
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Barbara Baarsma is a professor of applied economics at the University of Amsterdam and also holds various additional positions. She is the chair of the Bank Council of DNB and a member of the Monitoring Committee on Corporate Governance, the Dutch Committee for Entrepreneurship, the Advisory Board of the Taskforce Short Supply Chains, and a board member of the Alzheimer Foundation. From April 2012 until the summer of 2019, she was a Crown member of the Social and Economic Council (SER).
In 2022, Barbara Baarsma published her book ‘Green Growth’. In it, she answers the question of whether economic growth is meaningful or nonsensical. She explains why economic growth is not a panacea. She also illustrates what meaningful economic growth can look like and what is needed to achieve it.
Barbara is regularly invited to participate in committees to address policy issues for ministers. She was the chair of the Macroeconomic Control Instruments committee established by Minister Schippers in the field of medical specialist care and previously chaired the Vertical Integration in Healthcare committee set up by Minister Klink. She has also been a member of various committees, including the visitation committee for the National Public Broadcasting, the Committee on the Structure of Dutch Banks, the Home Service Committee, the Field Test Committee, and the Taskforce on Earning Capacity in Circular Agriculture.
Before 2016, she was the director of SEO Economic Research and served on the Supervisory Board of Loyalis NV, Espria, and Aon Group Netherlands BV, was a board member of the Foundation for Preferred Shares Kas Bank, and a member of the Advisory Board for Responsible Investment at PGGM. Prior to that, she was a commissioner/internal supervisor at Woonzorg, St. Elisabeth Two Cities Hospital, BNN, and a member of the audit committee of FNV Bondgenoten.
There are many problems and various constraints pressing on our economy. The newspapers are full of it: inflation, loss of purchasing power, war in Ukraine, issues in asylum reception, queues and closed doors due to staff shortages in numerous areas of the economy, from Schiphol to hospitals and from childcare to education. And then there is also the climate and nitrogen crisis, a housing market that is locked, and a looming corona wave in the autumn. The political response to these problems and crises is too often short-term solutions, sticking plasters without really addressing the underlying cause. How can we best tackle these problems and crises? This lecture by Barbara Baarsma addresses this.
Both the corona and climate crisis have strengthened the call for reduced consumption and have put economic growth in a bad light. But how realistic is that? If we want future generations to live at the same level of prosperity as we do, we need economic growth of about 3 percent per year. Why? Among other things, to cover the costs of ageing and to pay for the redistribution from rich to poor. As long as we pay for things like education, healthcare, and justice from collective resources, economic growth is necessary, argues Barbara Baarsma.
But how do we create growth if we look beyond financial prosperity? How do we create growth within ecological boundaries and provide equal opportunities for everyone? In this lecture, Barbara Baarsma answers the question of when economic growth is meaningful or nonsensical. She also shows what meaningful economic growth can look like and what changes are needed for this, for example in the tax system and climate policy and the way we define growth. With an eye on greening, economic growth is and remains necessary. But then it must be green growth. What does that look like?
The lecture is divided into three parts. The first part gives five reasons why we do indeed need economic growth. Then the second part gives five reasons why the current way economic growth is achieved is not ideal and why it must change. Finally, the third part shows what meaningful economic growth could look like.
Available for Boardroom discussions on good governance, greening, and other topics. She can draw on her experience as a member of the Monitoring Committee Corporate Governance.
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