User:Guido den Broeder

Guido den Broeder (The Hague, 28 February 1957) is a Dutch econometrician, politician, chess player, and myalgic encephalomyelitis patient.

Starting in 1976, he has worked as a researcher at a number of academic and advisory institutes. He graduated cum laude in 1981 at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam in general econometrics. He gained international fame with the development of the macro-econometric model AMO-K, which for some 15 years was used to study a number of strategic policy scenarios for The Netherlands.

During 1990-1995, he was a member of the Economic Committee of the Dutch political party GroenLinks. He was a local people's representative in Rotterdam from 1994 to 2002. He is a basic income advocate.

In 1983, Den Broeder predicted in a scientific publication that unemployment in The Netherlands would grow to over one million, only to be prevented with a drastic reduction of the work week. Then prime minister of The Netherlands, Ruud Lubbers announced that he would abdicate his position if this scenario came true. The unemployment count was adjusted downward and Lubbers could stay. Dutch policy on work week reduction, however, changed overnight, and work week reduction as well as part-time work were strongly stimulated by the Dutch government during the next two decades.

As a chess player, Den Broeder gained the title of FIDE Master and became champion of the Rotterdam region on two occasions. He also finished second in the Dutch Correspondence Chess championship of 1980/81, behind the later world champion Joop van Oosterom. He wrote a number of tournament books, a.o. on the Melody Amber tournament.

In 1987, Den Broeder fell ill with the chronic disease myalgic encephalomyelitis, and never recovered. He became a recognized experience expert. In 2005, he was co-founder of the ME/CVS Vereniging, and he was chairman of this patient association during 2005-2007. During this period, he criticised the publications of the Dutch Health Council on chronic fatigue syndrome and the policy of the Dutch minister of health for spending the entire budget for reseach into ME on cognitive behavioural therapy. In 2007, he was elected as a patient representative in the production of a multidisciplinary guideline on ME/CFS. In this capacity, he initiated a patient survey. The guideline is due in 2009.