Quick Facts
Biography
Arnoud W.A. Boot (born January 2, 1960 – Huizen, Netherlands) is a Dutch economist and professor of Corporate Finance and Financial Markets at the University of Amsterdam. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2008 and is co-director of the Amsterdam Center for Law & Economics.
He currently serves as chairman of the Bank Council of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and is a member of the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR). He is also chairman of the European Finance Association (EFA).
Earlier in his career, he was a faculty member at the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in the USA. In 2000-2001 he was a partner in the Finance and Strategy Practice at McKinsey & Company. From 2006-2014 he was chairman of the Royal Netherlands Economics Association.
Academic work
His current research focuses on corporate finance and financial institutions and covers a wide range of related issues including corporate governance, and the transaction-based emphasis of the financial sector and society at large including e.g. the phenomenon of footloose corporations (see his book De ontwortelde onderneming: Ondernemingen overgeleverd aan financiers? Further research interests are the regulation and structure of financial institutions, security design and capital structure. Special focus in his research goes out to relationship banking, an important and returning topic in many of his publications (see the following publications; Relationship Banking: What Do We Know?, 2000, Journal of Financial Intermediation; Can Relationship Banking Survive Competition?, 2000, Journal of Finance). The potential friction between short-term oriented transactional activities and a longer term relationship-oriented focus has his particular interest. He has published in major international academic journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, and the Review of Financial Studies. As lead author of the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) Boot presented a report to the Dutch government on the balance between society and the financial sector, emphasizing the need to reduce the vulnerability of society towards financial instabilities.
Other positions past and present
Arnoud Boot is director of the Amsterdam Center for Corporate Finance (ACCF) – a think tank that seeks to engage academia, policymakers and the business world on issues related to corporate finance and the functioning of the financial sector. He is also non-executive director of Optiver Holding in the Netherlands and the Reinsurance Group of America (RGA Inc) in the USA.
During 2011-2015 he was a member of the Inaugural Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). He was president of the European Finance Association in 2008, and president of the Financial Intermediation Research Society (FIRS) in 2012-2014. In 2008 and 2015 he was a member of the Quality Assessment Committees for business administration programs for the Israeli Ministry of Education. From 2004 to 2014 he was a crown member (Kroonlid) of the Dutch Social-Economic Council (SER). During 2014 he chaired a Dutch government committee that designed the new high school curriculum for business economics (M&O).
Arnoud Boot is married and has two adult daughters. He has a passion for running and tennis.