Peter Hein van Mulligen, did he not participate in Wie Is De Mol?
No, that was his brother, actor Rick Paul van Mulligen (41). We know Peter Hein van Mulligen (49) as chief economist at Statistics Netherlands. He started in 2010, succeeding Michiel Vergeer. Before that, Van Mulligen worked as a researcher for nine years, also at CBS.
So he’s been there for a while. Why is he now person of the week?
Statistics Netherlands was in the news this week because the research agency changed its way of measuring inflation. CBS initially based the inflation figure partly on the energy prices of new energy contracts, which rose sharply after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Statistics Netherlands now uses the energy prices of existing contracts.
As chief economist, Van Mulligen is responsible for the monthly CBS measurements, including those of the inflation rate. Van Mulligen is familiar with such methodological issues, about what is the best way to measure the development of the price level. For example, in 2003 he obtained his PhD at the University of Groningen on price indices, after studying General Economics. That thesis was partly supported by, yes, CBS data.
Statistics Netherlands measurements, indices, price level. Isn’t that a bit dry?
Not if you ask Van Mulligen. He often seeks publicity to convey the generally tough CBS material to the general public. Van Mulligen is not only chief economist, but also spokesman for economics and the labor market for Statistics Netherlands. In that role, he wants to “give meaning” to the figures and “make them more understandable for everyone in the Netherlands”, as can be read on his CBS profile page.
To interpret CBS’ findings, Van Mulligen regularly attends programs such as Wake up Netherlands and On 1. For example, he explained why all numbers went red at the start of the corona pandemic, and why the falling inflation was not reflected in the supermarkets at the beginning of this year.
You have to be very clever for that, to clarify such complicated themes on live television.
Certainly. Van Mulligen is therefore The Smartest Person. At least, he won the TV show in early 2019. In the last episode he defeated forester Arjan Postma and skater Mark Tuitert. In an interview with NRCasked why he participated in that program, he replied: “I’m not going to say that I want to show everyone that I am the smartest boy in the class, but yes, I really want to show everyone that I am the smartest kid in class.”
What else does Van Mulligen do?
He published the book in 2020 We are still doing well, in which he argued that the Netherlands had never before been so economically prosperous. The publication of the book, originally titled We are doing well, was postponed by six months, the addition ‘still’ had to acknowledge the intervention of corona. Nevertheless, the book garnered criticism: it would be too optimistic. For example, economist Dirk Bezemer stated that Van Mulligen wrongly disproved figures about lagging disposable incomes. Van Mulligen wrote that the growing government expenditure on health care, paid for by higher national contributions, dampened the effect of lower disposable incomes. Bezemer found that reasoning incorrect.