Our Chief Economist office

PwC’s Chief Economist Office, headed by chief economist Barbara Baarsma, researches the impact of major social and economic trends for our clients, stakeholders and society. By publishing our research reports on our website and other channels, we share our knowledge with society and contribute to the public debate. Internally this research contributes to a better knowledge and understanding of the subjects that are high on the agenda of our clients and relations.

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Business Climate heatmap

Dutch business climate has detoriated since 2018

The quiet strength of family businesses

Family businesses show resilience

Made in NL

The value of the high-tech manufacturing industry

GenAi@Work

PwC study: potentially almost thirty percent fewer vacancies

Barbara Baarsma

Barbara Baarsma is chief economist of PwC Netherlands and in this role, heads PwC's chief economist office. Since 2009, she has been a professor of Applied Economics at the University of Amsterdam. In addition, she holds various other societal positions. She is the chair of the Bank Council of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and a member of the Dutch Committee for Entrepreneurship. Before joining PwC, Barbara worked, among others, at Rabobank.

Megatrends

PwC has identified five global megatrends that are permanently changing the world: climate change, technological disruption, demographic shifts, fragmented world and social instability. These are structural developments that confront citizens, businesses, organisations and governments with major issues and dilemmas. Almost a decade has passed since the PwC network identified these megatrends. Looking back, we see that the speed of change has been greater than we foresaw at the time, mainly because the megatrends influence and reinforce each other. Each megatrend influences the social challenges (further elaborated in the ADAPT framework) facing the world.

ADAPT

The world is continuously changing. Megatrends such as climate change, the potential of technology, demographic developments and economic and political power shifts continue to re-shape our world. Governments, organisations and citizens are struggling with how to respond. We have developed the ADAPT framework to help them with this. ADAPT summarises urgent, global issues to which governments, companies, organisations and individuals must find an answer in the coming years. COVID-19 has accelerated these trends and made them more visible.