Jan Luiten van Zanden

Utrecht University and International Institute of Social History

Jan Luiten van Zanden (1955) studied history and economics at the Free University. In 1985 he completed his PhD thesis on Dutch agriculture in the nineteenth century. In 1987 he was appointed professor at the Free University, and in 1992 he received a similar appointment at Utrecht University. At present, Jan Luiten van Zanden is professor in economic history at Utrecht University and senior researcher at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. He has published widely about economic development in Western Europe and Indonesia. In 2003 he was awarded the Spinoza-premium, the highest distinction in the academic world of the Netherlands.

In 1998 Van Zanden was elected general secretary by the International Economic History Association, the most important organization of economic historians world-wide. In 1997 he was appointed a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.