Economist and emeritus professor Arnold Heertje died on Saturday at the age of 86, the family confirms to it FD. Heertje wrote dozens of books, including the widely used and translated textbook The Core of the Economy.
Heertje was a professor at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) between 1964 and 2006 and wrote columns for the newspapers NRC and The Parool. As a well-known economist who could explain complex matters clearly, he was often a guest on television programs.
The Core of Economy was published in 1962 for use in HBS schools and is still part of the secondary school curriculum. Edits of the book were published for the Flemish, Walloon, German, French, Italian and English market.
A few years after Heertje obtained his doctorate in pricing in oligopolistic markets, he was appointed professor at the UvA when he was thirty. Heertje was one of the first Dutch scientists to use game theory in his thesis.
War kicked off the hunger for knowledge
Heertje (1934) grew up in Arnhem and came from a Jewish family. During the Second World War, as an eight-year-old boy, he and his family went into hiding with Reformed and communist families in Haarlemmermeer. His experiences during the war, including conversations with auxiliary pastors around the world, sparked a permanent hunger for knowledge in him. It also gave him a desire to speak to people ‘courage’, he said in an interview with de Volkskrant in 2016.
“When someone asks for my biography, I always say very briefly: ‘I have been a student at the University of Amsterdam since the summer of 1951.’ In other words: I see myself as a permanent student, in the sense that you constantly take in knowledge, keep up to date and remain curious, “Heertje told de Volkskrant.
After his time as professor, Heertje was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and gave lectures. Heertje had three sons, including comedian Raoul Heertje.
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