Mr. Bart Verspagen
Director-Dean of the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) and Director of UNU (UNU-MERIT)
Mr. Verspagen is an economist specialised in the economics of innovation, growth and development. Since 2012, he is the Director of the UNU-MERIT, a research and training institute of United Nations University, which collaborates closely with Maastricht University and carries out research and training on a range of social, political and economic factors that drive economic development in a global perspective. The institute is also a UN think tank that has the mission, among others, to research how countries can catch up in the unequal global playing field of the 21st century, without increasing inequality and social exclusion. Verspagen’s research interests are centred around the process of economic growth and development, especially its relation to innovation and technological change. His research field also covers areas such as international trade, development economics, industrial dynamics, economic history, and applied econometrics, statistics and mathematical modelling, including simulation modelling of international economies.