Arij Lans Bovenberg (born June 15, 1958) is a Dutch economist, and Professor of Economics at the Tilburg University and Erasmus University, known mainly due to his contribution to the Dutch debate on population ageing, pension reforms and public finances. Lans Bovenberg was awarded the Spinoza Prize in 2003.

Bovenberg was born and raised in Oosterbeek in the Netherlands. Between 1976 and 1981 he studied econometrics at the Erasmus University. Teun Kloek supervised his MSc thesis (doctoraalscriptie) From 1981 to 1984 he studied at the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his PhD in economics there at the end of 1984 for the dissertation entitled Capital Accumulation and Capital Immobility: Q-theory in a Dynamic General Equilibrium Framework.^[1]

After graduation he lived in the US, working at the International Monetary Fund. In 1990 he returned to the Netherlands and after a brief period at the Ministry of Economic Affairs he became a professor of economics at the Tilburg University and Erasmus University. Between 1995 and 1998 Bovenberg was deputy director at the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. Since April 2004 he has been scientific director of research institute Netspar, which he has founded.^[2]

Bovenberg is an independent member of the Dutch government's Social-Economic Council's committee for Social-Economic Policy and Life-Course Policy. In 2003 he won the Spinoza prize,^[3] which allowed him to start the Netspar research institute. Also thanks to these activities he was declared to be one of the 100 most influential Dutchmen by HP/De Tijd magazine in 2007.^[4] In 2008 Bovenberg got an honorary doctorate by the University of Ghent, Belgium for his scientific contributions. In 2009 he was elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[5] Bovenberg was elected member of Academia Europaea in 2010.^[6]

The early work of Bovenberg focussed on tax competition in open economies.^[7] Later he contributed on optimal taxes and environmental economics.^[8] Most recently he focussed on population ageing and pension economics.^[9]

Lans Bovenberg is married and father of two children. He was originally a member of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. When he lived in the United States, he was touched by the faith and the practical living of evangelic Christians. When he returned to the Netherlands he became a Pentecostal.

He is a member of the charismatic Evangelic Church Jefta in Breda, which is a part of the Pentecostal denomination Rafael Nederland. Twice a year he preaches in his church.^[14] He plans to study theology and become a part-time preacher around 2013.