Rick Van der Ploeg is Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, having previously been an academic at the University of Cambridge (1977-1983), London School of Economics (1983-1988), Tilburg University (1985-1991) and the European University Institute, Florence (1988, 2003-7), a Chief Financial Spokesperson in the Dutch Parliament (1994-98), a State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science (1998-2002) and an elected member of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (2003-7). Currently, also affiliated with CEPR, CESifo, Oxcarre, Netspar, the University of Amsterdam, and the Tinbergen Institute. Although most of his work has been on macroeconomics and public finance, he currently works on the economics of natural resources with side interests in higher education reform and economics of art and culture. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and is editor of the Basil Blackwell Handbook of International Macroecomics, co-author of the OUP textbook Foundations of Modern Macroeconomics, and author of numerous articles in academic journals and the popular press.
