Economists Chen Li and Peter Koudijs appointed as members of Young Erasmus Academy

The aim of Young Erasmus Academy is to promote interdisciplinary collaboration between young, excellent scientists. In addition, Young Erasmus Academy advises the Executive Board on policy matters and the aim of Young Erasmus Academy is to contribute to strengthening the university's profile in the public domain. Dean Patrick Groenen is convinced that Chen Li and Peter Koudijs will make inspiring contributions to Young Erasmus Academy: ‘Both are highly talented scholars, who approach their teaching and research in a very meticulous and inspiring manner. They are keen to contribute constructively to Young Erasmus Academy and therefore the university community.’

Building an Erasmus Forum

As a member of Young Erasmus Academy, behavioural economist Chen Li would like to promote more connections among colleagues at the university. One of her ideas is to build an Erasmus Forum where colleagues can freely discuss the challenges and questions they face, doubts and struggles they have, and celebrate successes they achieve. She states: ‘When I first arrived in the Netherlands, basic things such as where to buy pans for cooking bothered me. What helped me was an online forum for Chinese living in the Netherlands, where people volunteered to share their experiences and answer others’ questions.’  Chen Li’s research focuses on decision making under uncertainty and over time. It addresses questions such as whether the poor are more averse to ambiguity, how learning affect people's ambiguity attitudes, and how people's beliefs and attitudes towards uncertainty affect their decisions in social interactions. In 2019 Chen Li obtained an EUR Fellowship grant, and in the same year she was also awarded a prestigious Dutch Scientific Organization (NWO) Veni grant.

Setting up an interdisciplinary research project

Peter Koudijs specialises in the history of financial markets and combines economics, finance, law, and history. As a member of Young Erasmus Academy, he is looking forward to further interact with faculty members from other schools who work on topics in the field economic history. For instance, Peter Koudijs thinks of starting an interdisciplinary research project about the slavery past of the Netherlands and in specific the role of finance.  Peter Koudijs states: ‘Bankers in the Dutch Republic lent large sums of money on the collateral of enslaved people. More research is needed to better understand how this contributed to the continued practice of slavery. This is a perfect example of interdisciplinary research into a socially relevant theme, with a role for economics, finance, law and history.’

In 2020 Peter Koudijs obtained a Vidi grant of up to 800,000 euros by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and he was also awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant of 2 million euros, being only the third economist in the Netherlands to receive such a grant since the ERC’s start in 2007.