Irene van Staveren is Professor of Development Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her specific expertise lies in the field of ethics and economic philosophy. She is head of the promotion programme and project leader of the online database Indices of Social Development.

She is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Economic Issues, Review of Social Economy and Feminist Economics. In 2015 she published a multiform economic textbook with Routledge entitled Economcis after the Crisis – an introduction to the economy from a pluralistic and global perspective.