Samenvatting

In the previous essay in this series, I discussed the importance of the legal approach for (local) administrative sciences in the Netherlands since the appearance of the man who is considered the founder of Public Administration in the Netherlands: Gerrit van Poelje. More specifically, I addressed the question of the relationship between Public Administration and law during more than a hundred years of (local) administrative sciences. This essay answers the same question for the relationship between Public Administration and economics. The history of the relationship between Public Administration and economics begins with the business analysts Johannes Volmer and Jan Goudriaan. I do this on the basis of twelve main characters and twelve other key persons. The relationship between the main characters and the other key persons is always that of a teacher (usually as a PhD supervisor) and a student (usually as a PhD candidate). In this essay, doctoral genealogy is therefore again an important tool for discovering connections in the history of (local) administrative sciences. I divide the main characters and other key persons into four generations. The journey through time takes us to various universities and various study programmes in the Netherlands: Delft, Rotterdam, Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam and Free University), Utrecht, Tilburg, Leiden, Twente, Leiden, Groningen, Nijmegen and Maastricht. In this journey we also encounter various specific approaches within economic science. Finally, I will discuss the place of economics within (local) administrative sciences. One aspect of this is the discussion, in line with Jan Tinbergen’s work; he was awarded the first Nobel Prize in economics, about the malleability of society.