Harold Houba

Harold Houba is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam's School of Business and Economics (SBE), with a dual affiliation as an Economics Research Fellow at the Tinbergen Institute. He holds a PhD from Tilburg University (1994) and has been affiliated with SBE since 1992, except for a four-year period (2001–2005) at the Centre for World Food Studies. He coordinates the SBE Honours Programme. His research focuses on game-theoretic applications, including bargaining theory, market power, environmental agreements, and water economics. Notable contributions include work on the Mekong River Basin and California's water market. He co-organized the 2014 Tinbergen Institute Conference on Game Theory.

Teaching spans undergraduate and graduate courses in Economic Theory, Behavioral Economics, Microeconomics, and Game Theory. Courses include Behavioral Game Theory, Intermediate Microeconomics, and PPE programs. He has received grants, including NWO funding in 2014. His research outputs total 105, covering articles, chapters, and datasets, with recent focus on water markets and strategic pricing.