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About Barbara Baarsma
Barbara Baarsma is an economist. She is professor of applied economics at the University of Amsterdam and chief economist at PwC. She is also a member of the Dutch Committee for Entrepreneurship (including with Her Majesty the Queen Máxima) and Chair of the Banking Council of De Nederlandsche Bank. She previously worked at Rabobank, was a crown member of the SER and held supervisory positions in the financial and other sectors. A central theme in her research work is sustainability.

In recent years she wrote the books Nederland voedselparadijs (2020), in which she calls for more production and eating in short chains, Groene groei (2022) on the (un)sense of economic growth and Duurzame financiering (2024) on how the financial sector can steer greening of the economy. Barbara Baarsma was one of the first female economists to tell economic stories on television. On Pauw & Witteman, for example, she gave her unvarnished opinion on the women's quota. On other talk shows, she gave her views during the financial crisis, economic commentary on the Millionaires' Budget and the economic effects of election programs.

She sees it as her job as an economist to provide economic insights and facts so that better informed and therefore better decisions can be made. Better decisions that maximize prosperity and well-being for as many people as possible, now and in the future.