Ingrid Robeyns


Ingrid A.M. Robeyns holds the Chair Ethics of Institutions at Utrecht University, Faculty of Humanities and the associated Ethics Institute.
Robeyns is also a Fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association and was elected the associations eighth president in April 2017. She is a notable advocate of economic limitarianism.

Early life

Robeyns is from Leuven, Belgium. She earned a Belgian licentiate qualification in economics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1994. She went on to study social and political science in Germany at the Georg August Universität, Göttingen. Robeyns returned to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for her MSc in economics, which she completed in 1997.
Her doctorate in philosophy and economics came from the University of Cambridge in 2003. Her dissertation was on gender inequality and the capability approach. Robeyns also has an MA in philosophy from the Open University.

Academic career

In 2006 the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research awarded her a five-year Vidi grant for research on theories of justice. The research considers what the question of justice means within the welfare state for children, parents and non-parents. In 2018 Robeyns was elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Personal life

Robeyns claimed dual Dutch / Belgium citizenship in 2013.