Ministerie van Economische Zaken, Landbouw en Innovatie
Netherlands
CPB was founded sixty years ago as the Centraal Planbureau (Central Planning Bureau), with Nobel laureate Jan Tinbergen as its first managing director. CPB provides independent forecasts and analyses that are scientifically sound, up-to-date and relevant for the policy decisions of government, parliament, and societal organizations such as political parties, trade unions, employers’ associations, and the European Commission.
CPB combines the accounting centre for budgetary and economic policy and a research centre preparing independent forecasts and analyses. It has a staff of 180.
Literally translated, CPB in Dutch means ‘Central Planning Bureau’, which is misleading, as CPB has never been engaged in economic planning. CPB analyses the effects of current and future government policies, so our English name is CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
CPB is part of the ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. Its director is appointed by the minister in consultation with other members of the government. However the work CPB does is fully independent; it has its own legal mandate and an independent executive and advisory committee. The CPB is largely publicly financed. To ensure its independence, a maximum of twenty percent of its annual budget may originate from external assignments. However, CPB is not allowed to compete with commercial research bureaus, and external assignments are limited to local and national governments, European institutions or international governmental organisations.
CPB has delivered a number of studies in the past decade on the sustainability of public finances in the Netherlands in the light of population ageing. In addition, it has contributed to other projects that were financed by the EU, in particular AGIR and DEMWEL. Furthermore, CPB has intensified its research on macroeconomic risks and pension reform in the last few years. This research work has been financed by the research network NETSPAR. This research has delivered a number of economic models, small analytical models and large general-equilibrium models that deal with questions on ageing and pension reform.
Key personnel involved in the project
Ed Westerhout, researcher
Albert van der Horst, researcher
Paul Veenendaal, researcher
Adri den Ouden, research assistance
Main tasks attributed to them in the project
The work on Pension systems, savings and financial education will involve an analysis of how governments can facilitate intergenerational risk sharing of macroeconomic risks in pension plans through insurance or by providing tradable financial assets (such as GDP bonds and longevity bonds). It will also investigate how social insurance, public debt policy, the tax-transfer system and risk sharing rules in collective pension plans can conduct optimal intergenerational risk sharing.
The work on Health and well-being will involve the development of alternative scenarios that foster social engagement in older people with poor health and investigate the economic consequences for selected countries.
Short profile of all personnel and previous relevant experience
Ed Westerhout has contributed to most of the studies on ageing and pension reform mentioned above. Ed Westerhout is now project leader at CPB of the Netspar theme Multi-pillar pension schemes and macroeconomic performance. He has been affiliated with the research department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the University of Amsterdam where he has been teaching economic growth, monetary and fiscal policies. At CPB, he has been leader of projects on ageing, pension reform and the health care sector. Ed Westerhout has published in leading academic journals such as International Tax and Public Finance and Health Economics.
Albert van der Horst is now project leader at CPB on the future of health care in the Netherlands, developing an economic perspective on rising health care expenditures. He has developed scenario studies on ageing and on the economic development of the Netherlands. He has published in leading academic journals such as Economic Policy and Fiscal Studies.
Paul Veenendaal joined CPB in 2001 and currently leads its research programme ‘International Economics’. Paul has a firm background in general equilibrium modelling and is an experienced project leader. He is responsible for all updates and extensions of the WorldScan model that are needed to address specific policy questions and has been involved in numerous projects at the request of the European Commission. He also acts as a guide, advisor or co-author for external users of the WorldScan model – at DG ENTR and at DG ECFIN. Adri den Ouden has a large experience in data collection and data analysis, especially in the field of population, employment and ageing.