Thijs Van Rens

Thijs Van Rens is a Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, affiliated with the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Department of Economics. His research focuses on food systems, health economics, labor market dynamics, and structural unemployment. He holds positions as a Research Associate at the Centre for Macroeconomics (LSE), Research Affiliate at CEPR, and Fellowships at IZA and the Kiel Institute.

Education: PhD in Economics from Princeton University (1999-2005). Research interests include the economic impacts of food pricing distortions, skill mismatch unemployment, and the interplay between technological change and labor markets. Current work explores interventions to improve food purchasing sustainability and health outcomes, particularly in digital domains.

Key contributions include modeling mismatch unemployment and analyzing the role of wage rigidity. His recent work emphasizes policy solutions for obesity and food system inefficiencies, such as subsidies for fruit and vegetable access in deprived areas. He has advised UK parliamentary committees on obesity and contributed to policy debates on minimum wage and sugar taxes.

Teaching includes macroeconomics at both undergraduate and PhD levels. He has organized international conferences and workshops on labor market dynamics and structural unemployment. Collaborative projects involve co-investigator roles in grant consortia focused on health and sustainable food systems.

Labs/Teams: Active in Warwick’s Macroeconomics group, CAGE Research Centre, and affiliated with global institutions like CEPR and IZA.