2017

History suggests that when two groups merge, it doesn’t end well. Academic research has suggested the same. But my experience and research at the Faculty of Economics and Business has allowed me to identify factors that accommodate successful mergers.

The minister might not have done his homework, but our economists have: and they estimate that 2.5 million jobs and 8.5 percent of the UK’s GDP is at risk from Brexit.

What effect, if any, does female representation have on board performance? Previous research says none. Our research says otherwise.

Historically women have had lower levels of education than men all around the world. But since the mid-20th century the educational attainment of women has grown at a quicker pace than that of men in most countries, leading to a gradual closing of the...

In the last decade, the Dutch government has embraced a neo-liberal agenda to deal with the rapidly rising costs of public healthcare. As a result, the characteristics of the healthcare sector have changed to include the emulation of a ‘market’ for care,...

Government service is often perceived as subpar. People can associate it with long lines, poor service, and unreliability when keeping to deadlines. But in recent years, governments have started to take interest in the idea of treating citizens like...

In my Industrial Organization lectures, I like to talk about Damaged Goods, the now classic article by Deneckere and McAfee. What’s it about? In 1990, IBM introduced a cheaper version of its laser printer. Fifty percent slower, but much cheaper. However,...

Regulators are well aware that management behaviour is largely determined by the corporate culture within an organization. However, in practice, shaping corporate culture is trickier than it sounds. People struggle with questions such as what is an ethical...

A striking development in the recent years has been the increased polarisation in terms of values and attitudes that many societies around the world are witnessing. This is noticeable both in public opinion surveys as well as in recent election outcomes....

Why was there a sudden turning point in globalisation in 2011? A new video explains the mystery behind the slow down in global trade compared to economic growth in the wake of the financial crisis.

How do you get into a career dedicated to understanding the causes and consequences of trade policy? We spoke to Tristan Kohl, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business. He spoke to us about how he got into academia, his research on...

Mariann Ollar has been an assistant professor in the research programme Economics, Econometrics and Finance since 2016. We caught up with her to discuss her forthcoming publication, 'Full Implementation and Belief Restrictions'.

Yasemin Karaibrahimoglu came back to Groningen after she spent part of her Bachelor studies as an exchange student at the University of Groningen (UG). She is now an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business and is looking forward to...

In December 2016, Jutta Bolt received a Wallenberg Academy Fellowship by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in Sweden. The fellowship is a prestigious grant of one million euros, comparable to a Vidi-Vici grant of the Dutch NWO. The grant meant that...

Digitisation and the rapid development of online and mobile technologies are radically changing existing business models. While some companies struggle to implement disruptive innovations, others become new market leaders overnight. We spoke to Thijs...

Prof Bernard Nijstad studies the relation between creativity and innovation within organisations. He offers companies in the Northern Netherlands the unique opportunity to participate in his ground-breaking research project. Nijstad: ‘This research...

In the debate over whether Britain should leave the European Union, a striking piece of research from the Faculty of Economics and Business made waves internationally.

In the coming years, we will experience an increasing demand on our healthcare systems. This is set to be an even more pressing issue due to population growth and longer lifespans. In practice, it means hospitals will have to treat more patients against...

Ajay Kohli is the Gary T. and Elizabeth R. Jones Chair and Professor of Marketing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He visited Groningen to give a keynote speech at the European Marketing Academy conference. The theme of this year’s EMAC conference...

Peter van Kampen works at Energysense at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, at the newly developed branch office of UG in Papenburg, and at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences with a research interest in measuring preferences and developing web based or...

Faculty of Economics and Business economists Tristan Kohl, Steven Brakman, and Harry Garretsen analysed what would happen to UK trade after it leaves the European Union.

Bio-diesel promises to be a clean option to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. However, it is still costly. Often, oil suited for consumption is used for it, putting pressure on food supply. With a rising world population, the idea of using food as a source...

Poorer people have worse health outcomes than richer people. This is true not just in the Netherlands, but internationally. We see the inequality both between countries, and within them. Even when people have the same health care system, poorer people...

No sooner had the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union than calls began for the Bank of England to pump money into the economy to avoid deflation.

If markets don’t produce outcomes in line with what voters want – and if politicians won’t (or can’t) address those problems – people tend to reach for more radical solutions.

Data is collected nowadays about anything, at any time, and at any place. The explosion of data is changing the way organizations capture data, analyze information, make decisions, and create value. But how to deal with so much data, and often, messy...

A closure of a subsidiary of a multinational company is an event that has deep economic and societal impact in the affected region, as it often leaves a shadow of unemployment. However, it, according to a recent research project done in collaboration...

Niels Holtrop explains how he developed a statistical model allowing companies to collect consumer data safely for his doctorate at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Economics and Business.

Imagine a man walks up to a woman and, without introducing himself, proposes marriage. Because the woman doesn’t know the man, and because she has a somewhat different plan for her life, she declines the offer. How many of us would object to her doing so?...

Talk has returned to Greece and its debt crisis. There is no acknowledgement that this situation exists merely due to a flaw in the design of the euro zone. This must be fixed if the currency is to continue -- otherwise the union will merely lurch for...

How does the financial sector help, hurt or hinder the economy? My research into this issue builds on the theory of Hyman Minsky (1919-1996), an American economist. He described how over the course of a long financial cycle, investors will shift towards...

The Dutch M&A market is booming. Major Dutch institutions, like PostNL, AkzoNobel and Unilever, have dominated the headlines of late, having all been approached by foreign acquirers looking for new targets. Many observers have been left wondering whether...

The Dutch M&A market is booming. Major Dutch institutions, like PostNL, AkzoNobel and Unilever, have dominated the headlines of late, having all been approached by foreign acquirers looking for new targets. Many observers have been left wondering whether...

Economists Richard Jong-A-Pin and Rasmus Wiese of the University of Groningen's Faculty of Economics and Business describe how moral beliefs, not just monetary considerations, guide voters to take part in elections.

The Faculty of Economics and Business has established seven 'signature areas' to stimulate multi-disciplinary research on major challenges like how to fund health care for an aging population and growing worldwide inequality.

Noemi Peters joined FEB in the fall of 2016 as Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Econometrics & Finance. Her interest in microeconomics and microeconometrics led her to a tenure track position in Groningen.

A dominant issue in the Dutch election campaign has been healthcare: specifically, the rising cost of the so-called 'eigen risico'. But what does this term mean, and what is the rationale for it? Viola Angelini, an associate professor at the Faculty of...

Automation has drastically changed our lives. Mechanical harvesting, robots to build cars, accounting software – numerous dangerous, intricate or boring tasks no longer have to be done by people. But automation also fosters the fear that jobs are...

I have a message for retail managers: the effectiveness of advertising and pricing decisions are not the same throughout the year.

On Thursday March 2, Gaaitzen de Vries (assistant professor at the University of Groningen and fellow of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre) gave a lecture in the widely watched World Trade Organization's Trade Dialogues Lectures.

The one issue that United States President Donald Trump has been exceptionally clear about is globalisation. He wants to protect the US economy from outside competition, because ‘jobs have disappeared to China’.

Using ICT to innovate is more than investing in computers and software. Systematic strategies must be developed to ensure that ICT investments lead to value creation. Research by John Dong has shown three strategies for firms to successfully innovate with...

Health treatments can be found both "cost effective" and "unaffordable". James Lomas, who visited the University of Groningen this month to give a talk on the issue unpicks this apparent paradox in a guest blog for Healthwise.

Thom de Vries, assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, recently published an article on  managing coordination in multiteam systems in Academy of Management Journal. We caught up with him to chat about the article 'Managing...

In the politics of recent years, emotion has played an important role, and this will be no different during the Dutch general elections in March. How do political parties deal with emotions? In a recent research project, Harry Garretsen and Janka Stoker...

International development expert Professor Robert Lensink set out to examine a widely-held concept in aid. He found there was little evidence to support it.

What will Donald Trump bring by 2021? Bart van Ark, economist of the New York-based The Conference Board and professor at the University of Groningen, analyses the road ahead.

What will Donald Trump bring by 2021? Bart van Ark, economist of the New York-based The Conference Board and professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business in Groningen, analyses the road ahead.

The Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) was founded in 1992 within the Economics Department of the University of Groningen. It recently marked 25 years since its founding, with a jubilee conference on the themes that have long been key to the...