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Bart van Ark (1960) is a professor in the “Economics of Productivity
and Technology Policy”at the University of
Groningen (the Netherlands). He obtained his degree in economics at
that same university in 1985. Between 1988 and 1990 he worked as a research
associate with the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (UK)
on international comparisons of economic performance in Europe. Since 1990
he has been back with the Groningen Growth and Development
Centre at Groningen University, where he presently teaches development
economics, economic growth and international economics and business.
On research, Van Ark has played a key role in the International Comparisons of
Output and Productivity (ICOP) project, for which he has been working
on European countries (including Eastern and Southern Europe), Asia, North
and South America. He extensively published in national and international
journals, including the Review of Income and Wealth, the National Institute
Economic Review and The Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.
Van Ark has been involved in various international research projects,
including the Productivity Program of the McKinsey Global Institute (1992
and 1993) and the CEPR Program on "Comparative Experience of Economic Growth
in Postwar Europe", and more recently the Technology and Economic Growth (TEG)
project which is financed by the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO). Since 1997
Van Ark has worked on a parttime basis with The Conference
Board, a business research organisation in the USA as consulting director
international economic research. Van Ark’s present professorship is an
endowed chair by The Conference Board. Van Ark has also been member of
two research schools in the Netherlands. Between 1993 and 1998 he was research
coordinator with the N.W. Posthumus
Institute, the interuniversity research institute on economic and social
history in the Netherlands. Van Ark is also a fellow of the Groningen research
school “Systems, Organization and Management”.
Since 1999 he is theme coordinator of programme C: “Coordination and Growth
of Economies” in SOM.