Seed for the Nobel Prize planted in the washing machine

Impense also holds American nationality and has lived in the United States for some time, where it was still early in the morning during a telephone conversation with Dr. Gelder. However, he hopes the Netherlands can claim part of its success.

“I am so indebted to my study in Rotterdam, it was a good education, and I worked at Tilburg for a year and a half,” says Impense.

But this is not entirely a Dutch gift, it is mainly associated with the washing machine at Harvard. “Joshua Angrist and I (Impence won the prize together was very decisive,” says Impense.

Causality

In the 1990s, Impense and two colleagues began research on causal relationships in the real economy. Impense and his colleagues do not use economic theory as a guide, but try to explain causal relationships with natural experiments. For example, after winning the lottery, Imbens examined a person’s working hours and their salary after military service.

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) calls Impense one of the world’s leading economists. His research methods are still used today.