Peter Nijkamp (born 26 February 1946) is a Dutch

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

, Professor of

Regional Economics Regional economics is a sub-discipline of economics and is often regarded as one of the fields of the social sciences. It addresses the economic aspect of the regional problems that are spatially analyzable so that theoretical or policy implication ...

and

Economic Geography Economic geography is the subfield of human geography which studies economic activity and factors affecting them. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics. There are four branches of economic geography. There is, primary secto ...

at the

Vrije Universiteit The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, a fellow of the

Tinbergen Institute The Tinbergen Institute is a joint institute for research and education in economics, econometrics and finance of the VU University Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, and the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The institute was founded in 1987 an ...

and President of the Governing Board of the Netherlands Research Council (NWO). He is ranked among the top 100 economists in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc, and is by far the most prolific economist. Towards the end of his career at the VU university Nijkamp faced accusations of

self-plagiarism Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...

and VU-appointed investigators have criticised referencing methods in some of his work.Commissie kraakt Nijkamp - VU vindt dat te hard
''Advalvas'', 17 March 2015.

Biography

Born in

Dalfsen Dalfsen (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and a town in the Salland region of the Dutch province of Overijssel. The municipality of Dalfsen was increased to its current size on 1 January 2001 through the amalgamation of the municipalities ...

, Overijssel, Nijkamp received his MSc in

Econometrics Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

and Regional Economics in 1970, and his PhD in Regional Economics in 1972, both from the Erasmus University,

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

, the

. He has honorary doctorates from the

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish government. listof all ...

and the

National Technical University of Athens The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...

. He is a winner of the

Spinozapremie The Spinoza Prize ( nl, Spinozapremie) is an annual award of 2.5 million euro, to be spent on new research given by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. It is named after the philosopher ...

(1996), the European Prize in Regional Science, and Founder's Medal of the Regional Science Association International. He has been member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1987.

Controversy

In 2013, the PhD thesis of one of his students was withdrawn one day before the scheduled defence. It consisted almost entirely of papers jointly written with Nijkamp. An internal investigation at the VU determined that some of these papers were recycled versions of yet earlier papers, with other co-authors, who had not been cited properly and this might be considered a form of plagiarism. The VU's rector, Frank van der Duyn Schouten, stated that Nijkamp had acted improperly but had not committed plagiarism. The student involved was allowed to adapt the thesis and the graduation ceremony took place in 2014. Following extensive press reports that claimed to have found cases of self-plagiarism in Nijkamp's work and an analysis by an anonymous whistleblower, the VU announced it would investigate Nijkamp's entire publishing record. It would also inquire with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences on the boundary between self-plagiarism and "self-citation". The investigation committee concluded in March 2015 that Nijkamp had re-used earlier publications in new papers on a certain scale, without proper referencing and the committee qualified this as "questionable research practice". The VU accepted some, but not all, of the committee conclusions. In a separate investigation the Dutch National Board on Research Integrity found Nijkamp "careless" but not in breach of scientific integrity. It also found university regulations on self-citation insufficient at the time. Nijkamp himself stated that the investigation committee's methodology and selection of publications is too thin a base for any conclusions.‘Zelfplagiaat’-rapport van de Commissie-Zwemmer: Broddelwerk over fictieve peanuts
Nijkamp's response, via retractionwatch.com, retrieved 8 November 2015.

Publications

His books include * ''Social Change and Sustainable Transport'' (with William Black, 2002, Indiana University Press) * ''Public Facilities Planning'' (with Lili Kiminami and Kenneth Button, 2007, Edward Elgar) * ''Spatial Dynamics, Networks and Modelling'' (with Aura Reggiani, 2006, Edward Elgar). His journal papers include * ''Second-best congestion pricing: The case of an untolled alternative'' (with Eric Verhoef and Piet Rietveld, 1996, Journal of Urban Economics), * ''Qualitative multicriteria analysis for environmental management'' (with Guiseppi Munda and Piet Rietveld, 1994, Ecological Economics), * ''Price and income elasticities in residential water demand'' (with Jasper Dalhuisen, Raymond Florax and Henri de Groot, 2003, Land Economics).

References

External links

*
Home page

Google Scholar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nijkamp, Peter 1946 births Living people People from Dalfsen Dutch economists Econometricians Energy economists Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Spinoza Prize winners Academic staff of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Erasmus University Rotterdam alumni Members of Academia Europaea Regional economists