The Department of Spatial Economics offers insights and applications in urban, regional, transport and environmental challenges from a primarily economic perspective, often enriched through multi-disciplinary collaborations.
The 60 staff members are involved in both fundamental research as well as in national and international commissioned research. With this research, the department has gained national and international recognition, as shown by the large number of international publications and citations; the appearance of different staff members in editorial boards and as experts in the media and advisory boards; and the presence of various section members on the typically Dutch phenomenon of 'Economists Parade'.
According to RePEc (accessed in September 2025), the School ranks in the top 5% of institutions worldwide in the fields of Transport Economics, Urban and Real Estate Economics, Economic Geography, Environmental Economics and Energy Economics. Moreover, various current staff members make it to the top 5% in RePEc's general ranking of economists, or in the economists' rankings in the fields just mentioned: Erik Verhoef, Jos van Ommeren, Henri de Groot, Carolyn Fischer, Cees Withagen, and Richard Tol.
For recent media appearances of our department members, please join us on linkedin.
To read more about the kind of research we do, check our department on the VU research portal, visit our blog, or subsribe to our newsletter.
