Arnold Heertje

Background

Heertje was born on the 19 of February,1934 in Breda, He was the son of Maurits Heertje and Estella Philips. Heertje grew up primarily in Arnhem. Due to their Jewish background, during the Second World War the whole family had to go in hiding after 12 November 1942. The eight-year-old Arnold ended up with a Reformed family in the Haarlemmermeer. Impressed by their faith, he planned to become a minister. Together with his parents he survived the war.

Education

From 1951 to 1956 Heertje studied economics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and received his MA cum laude. At the same university he received his doctorate in 1960 for his thesis entitled "The price theory of the oligopoly".

Career

In 1958 Heertje started teaching at the all Jewish Maimonides Lyceum in Amsterdam, and continued to do so until 1968. In the years 1963 and 1964 he taught at the Baarnsch Lyceum in Baarn.From 1964 to 1999 he was Professor of Political Economy at the Law Faculty of the University of Amsterdam, and from 1997 to 2006 he was Professor in the History of Economic Science. He retired from the University of Amsterdam 3 May 2006, where he had taught for over forty years. In 1999 he was teaching at the Vossius Gymnasium in Amsterdam.He was also the president of Dutch Friends of Tel-Aviv University.

Achievements

• Book 'De Kern van de Economie' (The Core of the Economy), which was a first introduction to economics for generations of secondary school pupils.
  
  In the mid-1990s Heertje and Jo van der Hal founded the Stichting Behoud Weesper Synagoge (Weesper Synagogue Preservation Foundation).
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Evolving Technology and Market Structure: Studies in Schumpeterian Economics (The International Schumpeter Society Series)

    (Joseph Schumpeter’s work, with its emphasis on supply sid...)

    1990
  • Economics and Technical Change 1977
  • Schumpeter's Vision 1981
  • Grundlagen der Volkswirtschaftslehre (Springer-Lehrbuch) (German Edition) 2008

Politics

He was considered a critical member, known for his blunt opinions concerning the board of the Labour Party.

Views

Heertje belonged to the group of economists, who defend the thesis that the field of the Economics is much more than just what can be expressed in money or what can be measured.Just as much of the field of Economics, according to Heertje, are those items difficult or impossible to express in monetary values such as nature, quality of life and sense of well-being. These kinds of values should be taken into consideration, when economic choices are made. Therefore, Heertje advocated custom sobriety.

Partly for this reason, Heertje was emphatically against the extension of the A15 van Bemmel facing Zevenaar. He argued, that the financing of each variant of that project is based on financial quicksand.Heertje also turned against the construction of the new North/South line of the Amsterdam subway system, because he felt that the city did not have sufficient expertise. Both organizationally, technically and financially, he envisioned a debacle.

Quotations: "The image of brawler is part of my biography, I rise went I feel treated unfairly."

"I like writing both at the scientific and popular level. At the scientific level there is always the challenge to find something new and the happiness if it happens. At the popular level there is the challenge to contribute to the public debate by provoking criticism and comments. In general, I like to relate complicated and complex situations to a few basic principles: unity in pluriformity."

"I am still active in writing books and articles. In recent years I published several contributions to festschrifts for scholars in the United States, Australia, and the Netherlands. I still feel tempted to publish on theoretical issues and to apply the stock of knowledge, built up over more than fifty years, to political situations."

Membership

Heertje became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997. He was also a president of International Schumpeter Society.At the founding of the association "Beter Onderwijs Nederland" (Better Education Netherlands) in 2006 Heertje joined the committees of recommendation.

• 

  The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands.

  At the founding of the association "Beter Onderwijs Nederland" (Better Education Netherlands) in 2006 Heertje joined the committees of recommendation. , Netherlands

  1997

• International Schumpeter Society

• Beter Onderwijs Nederland (Better Education Netherlands) , Netherlands

  2006

Personality

Educating pupils was always dear to Heertje’s heart. At the start of this century he opposed major reforms in secondary school economics education, a position in which he would later be proved right. As a child of Jewish descent, Arnold Heertje was deeply marked by the war and, in his own way, he stood up for academic values.

Interests

• antiquarian books on economics

Connections

Married Rebekka Halberstadt. Children: Eric Maurits, Raoul Louis, Patrick Joab.

Father:

Maurits Heertje

Mother:

Estella (Phillips) Heertje

Spouse:

Rebekka Halberstadt

Son:

Eric Maurits Heertje

Son:

Patrick Joab Heertje

Son:

Raoul Louis Heertje

Raoul Louis Heertje is a Dutch comedian. Being Jewish himself, his comedy performances include Jewish humour.

References

• Het Arnold Heertje-effect The book contains a strong critique of Heertje's style and argumentation in the public debate. It argued that the public debate is blocked by intellectuals like Heertje.
  2011