Ben J. Heijdra received his education in the Netherlands and in Canada. Before joinin the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen in the Spring of 1998 he held academic positions at various universities in Australia and the Netherlands. His research focuses on policy-relevant (theoretical) macroeconomics. Topics include ageing and macroeconomic performance, annuitization and the macroeconomy, and environmental macroeconomics. Heijdra is a Senior Researcher of Netspar, a network dedicated to the study of ageing and pension issues, and a Fellow of CESifo (Munich). He has been on the editorial board of De Economist since January 2005.