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Bas Jacobs is professor of public economics at the School of Business and Economics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam since 2022. Previously, he held the Sijbren Cnossen chair of public economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam (since 2018) and was professor of public economics at Erasmus University since 2007. He is a research fellow of the Tinbergen Institute and CESifo. He is member of the advisory board of the Norwegian Center of Taxation, associate editor for FinanzArchiv, and member of the economist panel of BNR. Jacobs has several ancillary activities, which are listed below.
Jacobs' research crosses the borders of public finance, optimal taxation, welfare economics, macroeconomics, human capital theory and labor economics. He has published on optimal taxation and income redistribution, the marginal cost of public funds, optimal capital income taxation, human capital and optimal education policy, environmental tax policy, macro-economic policy, labor markets and wage inequality, fiscal policy and ageing, economic growth, and technological change. He collaborated with (amongst others) Robin Boadway, Lans Bovenberg, Casper van Ewijk, Aart Gerritsen, Joop Hartog, Albert Jan Hummel, James Heckman, Egbert Jongen, Ruud de Mooij, Richard Nahuis, Rick van der Ploeg, Alexandra Rusu, Dirk Schindler, Kevin Spiritus, Paul Tang, Jules Theeuwes, Uwe Thuemmel, Dinand Webbink, Sweder van Wijnbergen, Honyang Yang and Floris Zoutman.
Jacobs writes a biweekly column in EW Magazine. Jacobs regularly writes opeds in main Dutch newspapers, for example NRC Handelsblad, Het Financieele Dagblad, or De Volkskrant. He blogs regularly on economics and politics in Dutch at Wordpress and ESB. Many of his blogs are also published at the website of Follow the Money. During 2006-2009 Jacobs wrote a biweekly column on economics in De Groene Amsterdammer and during 2019-2023 Jacobs wrote a monthly column on economics in Vrij Nederland. Jacobs has also contributed to the online news site De Correspondent.
Jacobs has been visiting fellow of University of Chicago (2003), University of Munich (2008), University of Uppsala (2010), Oxford University (2010), University of California, Berkeley (2015), European University Institute (2016), and the International Monetary Fund (2016). During the academic year 2018-2019 he was the Duisenberg Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Amsterdam. He was a consultant for the World Bank in 2016 for the Latvia Tax Review. He was also consultant for the IMF in Myanmar and Romania. From 2005-2007 Jacobs was assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Tilburg. In 2004-2005 Jacobs was a Jean-Monet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. He held a post-doc position at the University of Amsterdam during 2002-2005. From 1997 to 2004 Jacobs also worked at the CPB Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
Jacobs is born on September 5, 1973 in Bolsward, the Netherlands. He got his pre-university degree in 1991. In 1997 he received his MA in economics at the University of Amsterdam and his Ph.D. on May 14 2002 at the University of Amsterdam with the thesis Public Finance and Human Capital. His thesis advisors were A. Lans Bovenberg (Universiteit van Tilburg) and Casper van Ewijk (University of Amsterdam and Netspar).