About Geert Woltjer

Dr. Geert Woltjer is senior researcher on Nature and Economics at Wageningen Economic Research, part of Wageningen University and Research. Till 2006 he worked as assistent professor in economics at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. He studied economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and wrote his PhD at Maastricht University about an agent-based macroeconomic simulation game. At Wageningen Economic Research he was the main developer of the global general equilibrium model MAGNET, an extended version of the international trade model GTAP, where land use change and biofuels have an important role. He used this model for example to analyse the effects of biofuels and agricultural policies on land use change, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, poverty and agricultural prices. He wrote an introductory economics textbook ('The economic way of thinking', in Dutch), and wrote a number of articles, ranging from econometric analysis of happiness, economic education to policy analysis. His current focus is on sustainability and the green economy, including projects on the macroeconomic impacts of the circular economy, natural capital and indirect land use effects of biofuels.

An important hobby is music. He plays the piano and focuses on accompanying instruments and especially singers. In this context he gave some courses in musical analysis of songs, the results of which are included in this website.

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