Rene van den Brink

Rene van den Brink is a Full Professor of Decision Theory at the Department of Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, affiliated with the School of Business and Economics and the Tinbergen Institute. He holds a PhD in Econometrics from Tilburg University, where his thesis focused on 'Relational Power in Hierarchical Organizations.'

Research Interests: His work centers on Game Theory, Economic Theory, Networks, Social Choice Theory, Discrete Mathematics, Operations Research, Transportation, and Environmental Economics. He explores relational structures in economic organizations, with applications to operations research and environmental economics.

Teaching: At VU Amsterdam since 2001, he teaches Mathematical Economics, Quantitative Methods, Game Theory, and Decision Theory across programs like 'Econometrics and Operations Research,' 'Bedrijfskunde,' 'PPE,' and Tinbergen Institute's Research Masters in Business Data Science and Economics. He has also taught at Tilburg University, Nijmegen University, and the University of Texas at Arlington.

Research Output: With ~90 publications in top journals like Games and Economic Behavior and Journal of Economic Theory, his work emphasizes cooperative game solutions, network structures, and environmental applications. Recent trends include analyzing power distribution in voting systems and cost-sharing mechanisms for environmental challenges.

Grants & Projects: Principal Investigator for the NWO-funded project 'Hierarchische Netwerken' (2009–2015). Active in organizing conferences like the 'Tinbergen Workshop on Economic Theory and Game Theory.'

Labs/Teams: Collaborates with Tinbergen Institute and international researchers in game theory and network analysis.