News
Publication ‘Frontiers of Finance’ from Posthumus fellow Alberto Feenstra to be published
On 18 December 2025, Brill Publishers will publish Frontiers of Finance: The Political Economy of Public Debt in the Dutch Republic, authored by Posthumus fellow Alberto Feenstra.
In this book, Alberto analyses the political economy of provincial public debt within the federal Dutch Republic. The book shows that the domestic effect of Holland’s financial revolution and Amsterdam’s subsequent rise to an international financial centre was limited. Instead, the fiscal and legal fragmentation caused differences in risk, capital supply, transaction costs and, consequently, borrowing costs. The merits of Holland’s financial revolution were thus not transferable to another context. The results are relevant for wider debates about the role of institutions and the financial sector for economic growth.
