Barbara Baarsma professor by special appointment of Applied Economic Research at the FEB

Prof Barbara Baarsma has been named professor by special appointment of Applied Economic Research at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Economics and Business. This chair has been established in connection with the SEO Economic Research foundation.

Barbara Baarsma uses microeconomic tools in resolving issues related to market processes, competition and regulation. Earlier research areas included education, the legal profession, notary practice and the electrical energy sector's self-regulation, supervision and quality regulation. In the area of competition, she focuses on the demarcation of relevant markets and the development of a competition test to be used for legislation and determining market entry. Baarsma is also an advisor in competition cases (involving mergers, cartel cases and government funding) and she has extensive experience in conducting cost-benefit analyses and monetary valuation.

Since 2008, Baarsma has been the director of SEO Economic Research, a foundation where she held various positions since 2000. She is also a member of the Loyalis NV supervisory board and a member of the Dutch Public Broadcasting inspection commission, where she evaluated public broadcasting performance from 2004 to 2008 and issued a report on this in 2009. She currently chairs the 'vertical integration in health care' commission established by Ab Klink, Minister of Health and Welfare in the Netherlands.
Prior to her work at SEO Economic Research, Baarsma was a researcher at the FEB where she wrote her dissertation on the monetary valuation of environmental goods.