Jan Luiten van Zanden (1955) studied history and economics at the Free University. In 1985 he completed his PhD thesis on Dutch agriculture in the nineteenth century. In 1987 he was appointed Professor at the Free University, and in 1992 he received a similar appointment at Utrecht University. At present, Jan Luiten van Zanden is Professor in Economic History at Utrecht University and Senior Researcher at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. He has published widely about economic development in Western Europe and Indonesia. In 2003 he was awarded the Spinoza-premium, the highest distinction in the academic world of the Netherlands. In 1998 Van Zanden was elected General Secretary by the International Economic History Association, the most important organisation of economic historians world-wide. In 1997 he was appointed a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
VoxEU Column
Rebasing 'Maddison': The shape of long-run economic development
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- Development ![](../../../../../../../../../../var/folders/34/zq18d8kx7kbgby0j06p_j6t40000gn/T/TemporaryItems/NSIRD_screencaptureui_EM2XPo/Screenshot 2022-01-04 at 17.01.16.png)
- Economic history
VoxEU Column
Before the Great Divergence: The modernity of China at the onset of the industrial revolution
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- Productivity and Innovation
VoxEU Column
From Baghdad to London: Lessons from one thousand years of urbanisation in Europe and the Arab world
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![](../../../../../../../../../../var/folders/34/zq18d8kx7kbgby0j06p_j6t40000gn/T/TemporaryItems/NSIRD_screencaptureui_EM2XPo/Screenshot 2022-01-04 at 17.01.16.png)
- Development ![](../../../../../../../../../../var/folders/34/zq18d8kx7kbgby0j06p_j6t40000gn/T/TemporaryItems/NSIRD_screencaptureui_EM2XPo/Screenshot 2022-01-04 at 17.01.16.png)
- Economic history