Elisabeth Proehl receives an NWO grant to develop policy guidelines for financing public spending
Elisabeth Proehl (University of Amsterdam) has been awarded an Open Competition SSH XS grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in the second round of 2025.
Project
Europe is entering a new fiscal era with large-scale public investments — such as the € 800 billion ReArm Europe plan — raising fundamental questions about how to distribute the fiscal burden fairly and efficiently across unequal populations
With her project, titled 'A Theoretical Foundation for Optimal Fiscal Policy Design in Heterogeneous Economies,' Elisabeth will develop a theoretical foundation for determining optimal fiscal policies in heterogeneous-agent models accounting for differences in households' income, wealth and behavior. By characterizing tax and public debt policies that maximize social welfare balancing efficiency and equity within such a model, this project will deliver policy guidelines on how governments should finance large increases in public spending.
Elisabeth is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Amsterdam. She will receive a grant of up to 50,000 euro.
View all granted projects 2025 Round 2 on the website of the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
NWO Open Competition SSH
Launched in 2022, the NWO Open Competition SSH Call offers three types of grants to support research in the social sciences and humanities. The XS grant specifically encourages curiosity-driven, bold ideas through short-term projects (maximum 12 months). These high-risk, high-gain initiatives must be ground-breaking and contribute meaningfully to the advancement of science.