Wouter Jacobs
Dr. Wouter Jacobs (1979) has a background in Spatial Planning & Human Geography (MA, Radboud University Nijmegen). He received his PhD in Management (Radboud University Nijmegen) in 2007. In his PhD he developed an institutional economic framework to study the global maritime transport sector and to compare competition strategies and governance structures of seaports in Rotterdam, Los Angeles-Long Beach and Dubai. After his PhD, Wouter moved to the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Here he worked for 2.5 years, in close collaboration with Port of Rotterdam Authority and the City Development Cooperation of Rotterdam, on research on the commercial and geographical relationships between specialized advanced service providers (finance, insurance, consultancy) and seaport clusters. He was furthermore involved at ESE as coordinator and lecturer of the MSc-seminar Advanced Port & Transport Economics. Dr. Jacobs currently works for the Urban & Regional Research Center at Utrecht University where he is involved in research (commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs) on the co-evolution between Multi-national Enterprises (MNE) and knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) in the Amsterdam metropolitan region. Wouter’s current port related research builds upon the evolutionary economic geography perspective (EEG), with particular focus on processes of co-evolution between the maritime industry, technology and institutions in a regional context. He is member of the board of the Regional Science Association Netherlands and has held guest lectures at the Institute of Transport and Maritime Management in Antwerp and at the Urban Studies Program of Simon Fraser University Vancouver.
