Jacques Poot
The dynamic, and bidirectional, relationship between population and the economy has been described as ‘one of the grand themes of history’.1 Jacques Poot, Emeritus Professor at the University of Waikato, has been at the forefront of research and teaching on these critical issues for more than 40 years. He has made outstanding contributions to New Zealand and international research and public policy and is an internationally acknowledged scholar in population economics, migration, regional science, economic growth, the development and application of spatial interaction techniques, and meta-analysis.
Jacques was born in Schiedam in the Netherlands. Encouraged by his mathematics teacher at Alkwin Kollege Uithoorn, he was accepted in 1972 into the highly competitive Interfaculty of Econometrics and Actuarial Sciences at Vrije Universiteit (VU), Amsterdam. Jacques’ induction into the Netherlands’ tradition of mathematical economics and econometrics continued with starting Masters-level study in applied econometrics at VU in 1975, supervised by Arnold Merkies. This placed Jacques on the Jan Tinbergen academic family tree.2 His Master’s thesis and research collaboration with other VU professors introduced Jacques to theories of economic growth, spatial economics, population projection methods and public policy, and a pathway for his career. Influenced by the offer of a junior lectureship and the launch of a new PhD programme at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) in 1978, Jacques chose New Zealand for the next stage on that pathway.3
Jacques’ PhD thesis on inter-regional population mobility, supervised by labour economist Peter Brosnan, integrated his interests in population and statistical methods with regional economics. Jacques quickly established a steady pattern of publishing and a reputation for rigorous and innovative research. The Australian and New Zealand section of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) awarded him the best PhD dissertation medal in 1985; a chapter on a model of inter-urban migration inspired by William Alonso’s (1978) general theory of movements was published in the Scottish Journal of Political Economy (Poot, 1986); and a range of publications on population, immigration, labour, regional, urban and building economics were soon appearing with regularity in New Zealand, Australia and internationally.
Jacques soon developed local and international networks through his research and teaching.4 An invitation in 1980 and subsequent sabbatical leave in Amsterdam were catalysts for long-standing research and teaching collaborations with regional economists in the Netherlands, particularly with Peter Nijkamp (Poot, 2016).5 Another opportunity arose in 1994 when invited to spend 2 years as a Foreign Professor at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, resulting in research collaboration with Hirotada Kohno and Yoshiro Higano.6 Additionally, Jacques has held visiting positions in Australia, the United States of America and the Netherlands. He was NZ–UK Link Foundation Visiting Professor at the University of London in 2015 and a Fellow-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences in 2014. He continues to be an external Research Fellow at the Centre for the Research and Analysis of Migration at University College London, and at IZA Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn.
Jacques’ career as an economist with outstanding research skills, an interest in contemporary policy issues, and a global research network are manifest in an impressive body of research output, conference presentations and policy contributions. At the time of writing this citation, Jacques had produced 101 articles in refereed journals, edited or authored 11 books, 62 book chapters, 27 papers in published conference proceedings, another 40 working papers not published elsewhere, and numerous magazine articles and book reviews. Jacques has been a regular keynote speaker and contributor to plenary sessions at research and policy forums in many parts of the world.7 His research has attracted more than 9000 citations, and he is ranked within the top 5% (average rank score and all other criteria) of authors of research papers in economics.8 Jacques’ research embraces most aspects of population and regional economics, with a particular focus on the spatial dimensions of these topics.9
Migration is at the core of much of Jacques’ research and policy work. This goes back to his PhD research on inter-urban migration and subsequent collaboration with Peter Brosnan on the determinants of trans-Tasman migration.10 An example of the influence of his research in this field is the monograph on international migration and the New Zealand economy in collaboration with Brian Philpott and Ganesh Nana (Poot, Nana, & Philpott, 1988). This study applies computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling to evaluate impacts of international migration in New Zealand at macro and sectoral levels. This work was published at a time when little attention was given to econometric and CGE modelling of migration in Europe and the USA. Insights from this work informed thinking about migration policy, such as the subsequent introduction of the points system and skills-based migration policies. Jacques continued research on this topic, improving our understanding of short-term and long-term effects on trans-Tasman migration (e.g. Poot, 1995).
Jacques’ research on migration includes topics on migration modelling methods including gravity models and extensions (e.g. Poot, Alimi, Cameron, & Maré, 2016), the effects of migration on income growth and convergence, on innovation, human capital, wages and employment, the regional and housing market effects of migration, income distribution, population ageing, and the interplay between migration and institutions. The impact on firm performance of migration and population diversity is another theme which has involved innovative research measuring cultural diversity and evaluating the effects on innovation and firm performance (e.g. Ozgen, Nijkamp, & Poot, 2013), the ability of immigrants to assimilate and the significance of language proficiency (Maré, Pinkerton, & Poot, 2016). There are topics involving international trade, the effects on trade agreements and the effects on international travel (McCann, Poot, & Sanderson, 2010). Jacques has acted either as a principal investigator or advisor for several large-scale MBIE-funded research programmes on many of these migration-related topics. An invited and highly cited contribution on migration modelling for the Golden Anniversary Issue of Papers in Regional Science illustrates the international standing Jacques commands in this field (Cushing & Poot, 2005).
A substantial volume of Jacques’ research is on the dynamics and characteristics of labour markets and human capital. In addition to the intersection between migration and the labour force, Jacques’ research has included fertility and labour force participation, home ownership and occupational segregation, education and labour incomes, wage curves and regional unemployment and wage relationships, the impact of labour market deregulation and the significance of spatial heterogeneity. An example of a regional spatial approach to labour markets and the wage curve is the application of a dynamic efficiency wage model to multiple local labour markets that interact through migration (Morrison, Papps & Poot, 2006).
Spatial perspectives feature in much of Jacques’ approach to population and regional research. Spatial economic models incorporate spatial autocorrelation or neighbourhood effects. They can be estimated using spatial econometric methods which take account of economic and social interactions and spillovers between regions, and therefore allow analysis and quantification of effects such as spatial concentration and inter-regional interactions. Spatial statistical methods were introduced by Belgian economist Jean Paelinck in the mid-1970s, and his work influenced Jacques’ choice of research methods (Paelinck & Klaassen, 1979).11 Jacques collaborated with Peter Nijkamp to produce one of the first papers to consider the implications of endogenous growth theories for regional economies (Nijkamp & Poot, 1998). At that time, spatial spillovers and barriers to innovation, migration and trade were rarely considered in models of endogenous growth.12 Subsequent work has included applications of spatial modelling to infrastructure investment, technological progress, the diffusion of technology, the role of regions in the world economy and R&D policy.
Interest in population projection methods and the use of Markov chains to model transitions stemmed from his early research with Merkies in the 1970s and techniques developed by Henri Theil to model social mobility. Jacques’ research in this field has continued with methodological developments and applications including population forecasting with endogenous migration, the age–sex distribution of regional populations, and stochastic methods for projecting small-area populations (e.g. Cameron & Poot, 2011).
Meta-analysis has become a popular statistical methodology for analysing and combining results from large numbers of similar studies. Meta-analysis seeks to summarize, evaluate and understand what we know about a given empirical economic issue, policy parameter or effect. Since his early association with Peter Nijkamp and MASTER-point at VU in the mid-1990s, Jacques has been at the forefront of the application of meta-analysis to economics. Jacques’ most cited papers are in this field and cover topics that intersect with his other research on population economics, including the effect of migration on employment, wages, trade, innovation, income growth and convergence, regional economies, and several other topics in economics including the impact of fiscal policies on growth, infrastructure and trade, and agglomeration externalities.13 Two of these papers (viz. Longhi, Nijkamp, & Poot, 2005; Nijkamp & Poot, 2005) have been assessed as amongst the most influential articles applying meta-analysis to economics.14 The first paper, for example, provides important information for immigration policy (e.g. immigration and wages), and evidence of labour demand responses to labour supply shocks (such as changes to migration policy). Another highly cited paper in this genre with important public policy insights is Nijkamp and Poot (2004) which covers research on the impact of fiscal policies on long-run growth.
Through his teaching and graduate supervision, Jacques has added significant growth to the Tinbergen academic family tree. He has supervised the dissertations of 20 graduate students. There seems little doubt Jacques’ work will live on in future generations. Three of his PhD students (plus a post-PhD colleague whom he mentored) are now full professors and three are associate professors, at universities in the United Kingdom, France, USA and New Zealand, while several other former students also continue to be active researchers publishing in peer reviewed journals.
Jacques embraced several academic leadership positions. Following his progression to Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington and academic leadership roles in the School of Economics and Finance, Jacques was appointed in 2004 to a Personal Chair in population economics at University of Waikato and the Directorship of the Population Studies Centre (PSC). During his 3 years as Director, the PSC secured several large grants that enabled the Centre to undertake influential New Zealand focussed research on population ageing, immigrant integration and regional population issues.
Jacques has been actively involved with professional bodies associated with his research and teaching fields. These include the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) of which he served as Elected Councillor-at-Large from 1997 to 1999 and 2015 to 2017 and Vice President in 2016.15 He also served the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), the Australian and New Zealand chapter of the RSAI (ANZRSAI), and the Population Association of New Zealand (PANZ). Jacques was awarded Life Member of both ANZRSAI and PANZ in 2023. He has served on editorial, scientific and advisory boards for numerous research journals and was Pacific Editor for Papers in Regional Science from 1998 to 2006. Particularly notable was Jacques’ appointment as a member of the Spinoza Prize Selection Panel, The Netherlands, from 2008 to 2010.16 As a member of the Dutch diaspora, he has taken a deep interest in Dutch migrants to New Zealand and was for 20 years (1988–2008) a Trustee of the New Zealand–Netherlands Foundation.
The calibre and impact of Jacques’ research public policy contributions and leadership, and his influence as a teacher and mentor to younger scholars have been recognised in numerous ways in New Zealand and internationally. On the international scene, Jacques has been Elected Fellow of Regional Science Association International (RSAI) in 2015; Fellow of the Global Labor Organisation since 2017; Elected Member of Academia Europaea since 2012; Elected Correspondent (Honorary Fellow) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2002. Closer to home, in 2013 he received the NZIER Economics Award which mentioned in addition to his other achievements, his work in forging links between the research community and public policy particularly in regard to understanding of population dynamics, migration and regional development. As Emeritus Professor, he continues to be active at Te Ngira Institute for Population Research at the University of Waikato, where he is also an Honorary Professor in the School of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
Rober A. Buckle
2025
1 Schofield and Wrigley (1985, p. 561).
2 Jacques’ supervisor Arnold Merkies is a ‘great grandchild’ on the Jan Tinbergen academic tree: https://academictree.org/econ/tree.php?pid=23345. Jacques met Tinbergen during a visit by the latter to VU. Like Tinbergen, Merkies had previously worked at the Dutch Central Planning Bureau (now called CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) and became in 1972 the first professor of econometrics (covering operations research, mathematical economics and econometrics) at VU.
3 The Dutch diaspora helped tip the balance in favour of New Zealand rather than accept the offer of a PhD scholarship from Australian National University. Few Dutch migrated to New Zealand during the late 1800s and early 1900s, but the devastation caused by WWII, the impact of the 1945 independence of Indonesia, and the large 1953 North Sea flood, precipitated the migration of thousands of Dutch people to New Zealand in the 1950s and early 1960s (Schouten, 1992). Included in these post-WWII immigrants were several relatives of Jacques, also subsequently motivating his parents to retire to New Zealand.
4 An early example of how Jacques’ teaching fostered international collaboration was an elective Masters course in regional, urban and transportation economics taught at VUW that helped establish a long-standing research collaboration with regional economists in the Netherlands.
5 Jacques’ first collaboration with Nijkamp was a theoretical study of the dynamics of generalised spatial interaction models. The resulting paper was first presented at the 1985 Pacific Regional Science Conference on Molokai, Hawaii, with Walter Isard as the discussant and subsequently published in Regional Science and Urban Economics (Nijkamp & Poot, 1987).
6 Both Kohno and Higano served as Presidents of the Regional Science Association International.
7 To date Jacques has contributed over 70 keynote speeches and contributions to plenary sessions at research and policy forums throughout the world.
8 Jacques Poot – Google Scholar and Jacques Poot | IDEAS/RePEc
9 The volume of essays by former students, colleagues and co-authors celebrating Jacques’ career and published in Cochrane et al. (2021) illustrates the quality and breadth of his research.
10 Brosnan and Poot (1987) is Jacques’ first major publication on trans-Tasman migration.
11 Paelinck argued for the creation of this new field at the Annual Meeting of the Dutch Statistical Association in Tilburg in May 1974, pointing to the need to develop a ‘systematic branch of econometrics’ to provide the methodological foundation for regional and urban econometric models (Anselin, 2010).
12 This paper was reprinted in the book titled The Growth of Cities edited by Ács (2006).
13 Eleven of the 22 papers by Jacques that have attracted >100 citations are papers that apply meta-analysis. This includes his top cited paper (Longhi et al., 2005) which has attracted over 570 citations.
14 See Gechert et al. (2024).
15 He was elected to serve as President of RSAI in 2017 and 2018 but was unable to take up this role due to family-related circumstances necessitating residence in the Netherlands between 2017 and 2020.
16 This Panel of 12 members selects up to four personal awards annually to the value of 2.5 million euro each to the most outstanding scholars in the Netherlands across all disciplines.
