CASBEC

The Centre for Advanced Small Business Economics is a joint effort of the Erasmus School of Economics of the Erasmus University and many partners inside as well as outside the Erasmus University Rotterdam to conduct and support research and education in the area of small business economics and related fields like entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, development economics and entrepreneurship and bio- and psychomarkers. CASBEC is based within the department of Applied Economics. It employs PhD students, student assistants, post-docs, regular researchers and guest lecturers. It has close and established links to researchers of the RSM Erasmus University, of the Free University in Amsterdam, Montpellier Business School and the Institute of Development Strategies at Indiana University. Its collaborators are involved in many educational efforts and courses at Erasmus University Rotterdam. CASBEC was established in 1988 and is directed by Prof. dr Roy Thurik who holds a chair in economics and entrepreneurship. Dr Jolanda Hessels is managing director.

research education staff

Research

Current research themes include: Economics of entrepreneurship, Industrial dynamics, Small business economics, Nascent entrepreneurship, Female entrepreneurship, Retail economics, Management in small sized companies, Entrepreneurship and the macro economy, Knowledge, entrepreneurship and culture in the modern economy, Innovation and small companies, Social entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship and biomarkers, Entrepreneurship and psychomarkers. There is also a big project on Gentrepreneurship: explaining the entrepreneurial choice using DNA information. Research is part of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship programme of the Erasmus Research Institute of Management and the Labour, Region and Environment programme of the Tinbergen Institute. Thurik and Hessels are fellows of both ERIM and TI. There is considerable demand for the expertise of CASBEC also in the area of applied research. Several research projects are financed by other sources than that of the Erasmus School of Economics. The research on biomarkers and psychomarkers is done together with the Erasmus Medical Centre, the Department of Clinical Psychology of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Department of Econometrics of the ESE. This is done is the framework of the Erasmus University Rotterdam Institute for Behavior and Biology (EURIBEB).


Education

In the Erasmus School of Economics CASBEC is responsible for two seminars (Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Dynamics and Entrepreneurship) as well as three electives/core courses (Small Business Economics, Economics of Entrepreneurship, Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Strategy Economics) offered in the major entrepreneurship of the bachelor’s III programme and the master’s programme Stategy and Industrial Dynamics.


Staff

Current staff are:
Roy Thurik, director and chair, (small business economics, industrial dynamics, entrepreneurship, gentrepreneuship).
Jolanda Hessels, assistent professor and managing director, (international and development entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and well-being)
Martin Carree, visiting professor, (industrial organization, small business economics).
Joern Block, visiting professor, (economics and management of entrepreneurship)
Brigitte Hoogendoorn, assistent professor, (social entrepreneurship)
Peter van der Zwan, assistent professor, (determinants of entrepreneurship)
Philipp Koellinger, visiting professor, (entrepreneurship and innovation, behavorial economics, geno-economics)
Indy Bernoster, PhD student, (psychometrics and entrepreneurship)
Plato Leung, PhD student, (entrepreneurship and mental health)
Kristel de Groot, researcher, (neurocognitive markers and risk)
Eric Slob, PhD student, (integrating genetics into economics)
Nienke Dijkstra, PhD student, (psychiatric symptoms and decision making across the life span of the general population)
Ivonne Canits, PhD student, (on the neurocognition of economic behavior)
Niels Rietveld, assistent professor, (geno-economics)
Manuela Ettekoven, secretary
Bart van Rossum, student assistent
Simon Jung, student assistent