The new chair will focus on the study of European economic and financial policy in the broadest sense. It will encompass various research areas, including budgetary policy and policy with respect to the banking sector and financial markets, especially when this concerns policy that transcends national borders within Europe. The manner in which policy arrangements are shaped at the European level will be a key aspect of the chair’s teaching assignment. In his research, Vijlbrief will study, among other things, the desirability and effects of European budgetary rules, the role of so-called independent financial institutions – which have become common in Europe – and the analysis of primary and secondary markets for European public debt.

Vijlbrief will also share his expertise in the area of budgetary and financial policy with students of the Master’s programme in Economics. The chair is part of the Amsterdam School of Economics.

About Hans Vijlbrief

Dr J.A. Vijlbrief (1963) has been president of the Eurogroup Working Group in Brussels since February 2018. Members of the Eurogroup Working Group include high-ranking national civil servants and senior officials of the European Commission and the European Central Bank. The Eurogroup Working Group assists the Euro Group, which comprises the Eurozone’s Finance Ministers, and prepares all of its meetings. From 2011 to 2018, Vijlbrief was treasurer general of the Ministry of Finance. In this capacity, he was closely involved in determining the Eurogroup’s agenda. Between 2012 and 2014, he was chair of the European Union’s Economic Policy Committee. Vijlbrief is also the former chair of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which was created by EU members in 2010 to prevent Greece from going bankrupt.  

Prior to 2011, Vijlbrief held various high-ranking posts at, among others, the Ministry of Economic Affairs. He was director general of Energy, Telecom and Competition and director general of Economic Policy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Vijlbrief was also professor of Economic Policy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) from 2000 to 2010, the same university where he studied Economics and obtained his PhD in 1992 on the influence of unemployment benefits on the Dutch labour market.