Roel Beetsma
MN Professor of Pension Economics, University of Amsterdam
Roel Beetsma is Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Amsterdam and Professor of Macroeconomics. He is also Visiting Professor at Copenhagen Business School and Research Fellow of the CEPR and CESifo. He was previously a Member of the European Fiscal Board, the Supervisory Board of ASR Vermogensbeheer and the Supervisory Board of the pension fund for the Dutch retail sector. He has held visiting positions at DELTA (Paris), the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), the University of California in Berkeley and the EUI Florence. He has been a consultant for the ECB, the European Commission and the IMF. He was the Chair of a Dutch government commission on the European economy and Member of a Dutch government commission on second-pillar pensions. His research has been widely published in such journals as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature and the Economic Journal.
Featured work
Can the Dutch tail wag the EU budgetary dog?
A new pro-European government in the Netherlands could set a beneficial example by departing from traditional Dutch stinginess on the EU budget
How Europe can live with NATO’s ill-conceived defence spending target
A joint approach to defence as a European public good is the only viable option for EU countries to spend 5% of GDP on defence
The problem of missing European public goods from the ReArm Europe plan
Focusing on defence financing and delivery at national level risks fiscally weaker countries not increasing spending or running up unsustainable debts
Thinking European first and its implications
Faced with heightened geopolitical uncertainty, the European Union should base its actions on an overarching principle of ‘thinking European first’
All work
First Glance
04 December 2025
Can the Dutch tail wag the EU budgetary dog?
A new pro-European government in the Netherlands could set a beneficial example by departing from traditional Dutch stinginess on the EU budget
First Glance
01 July 2025
How Europe can live with NATO’s ill-conceived defence spending target
A joint approach to defence as a European public good is the only viable option for EU countries to spend 5% of GDP on defence
First Glance
18 March 2025
The problem of missing European public goods from the ReArm Europe plan
Focusing on defence financing and delivery at national level risks fiscally weaker countries not increasing spending or running up unsustainable debts
Analysis
11 March 2025
Thinking European first and its implications
Faced with heightened geopolitical uncertainty, the European Union should base its actions on an overarching principle of ‘thinking European first’
First Glance
23 January 2025
The case for a European Defence Compact
The EU needs a European Defence Compact uniting a coalition of likeminded countries to swiftly deliver and finance joint defence capabilities
Analysis
15 January 2025
European public goods: the time for action is now
New priorities, including defence and energy security, justify a European public goods approach – for which spare financial capacity can be used
External publication
06 December 2024
Working paper
03 December 2024
Designing conditionality in the supply of European public goods
This paper studies the consequences of placing conditions on access to sources of central financing
Policy Brief
23 July 2024
Joint public procurement as a tool for European Union industrial policy
Joint procurement could increase the effectiveness of public spending and
help strengthen the EU single market
Event
08 November 2023
Taking stock: 25 years of EMU
Closed-door conference jointly organized with De Nederlandsche Bank