Joras Ferwerda (March 5, 1984) holds a Bachelor in Economics and Law, a Master in Economics and Social Sciences and a PhD in Economics from the Utrecht University School of Economics in the Netherlands. He is currently Assistant Professor of the Economics of the Public Sector chair at the Utrecht University School of Economics in the Netherlands. He is also senior researcher at VU University Amsterdam for a EU-funded research project on risk models for money laundering.

He did the first study on the amounts and effects of money laundering in the Netherlands for the Dutch Ministry of Finance and a study on money laundering in the real estate sector for the Dutch Ministry of Finance, Justice and Interior Affairs. He organized the conference ‘Tackling Money Laundering’ with international leading experts on money laundering in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He did EU financed projects on the effectiveness of anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing policies in the 27 EU member states, on corruption in public procurements, on the portfolio of organized crime groups in Europe and is currently involved in an EU financed project on risk models for money laundering. Among his scientific publications he has an article published in Review of Law and Economics entitled ‘The Economics of Crime and Money Laundering: Does Anti-Money Laundering Policy Reduce Crime?’, an article in the journal Applied Economics entitled ‘Gravity Models of Trade-Based Money Laundering’, two books published by Edward Elgar entitled ‘Money Laundering in the Real Estate Sector: Suspicious Properties’ and ‘The Economic and Legal Effectiveness of the European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering Policy’ and a dissertation entitled ‘The Multidisciplinary Economics of Money Laundering’.

Next to his research, he is involved in teaching at both the bachelor’s and master’s levels at the Utrecht University School of Economics and the Utrecht University School of Governance.