Why is productivity growth so low (in the 'Second Machine Age')?
Alfred Kleinknecht , Emeritus Professor of Economics
The US, Japan and Western Europe experience a severe downturn of labor productivity growth during the past 10-15 years. There are several candidate explanations for the productivity crisis. I focus on the negative impact of deregulation of labor markets through 'structural reforms' as advocated by supply-side economists. At macro level, it is obvious that the champions of supply-side labor market reforms (e.g. US, UK, New Zealand, Canada, Australia) experienced a substantially lower growth of labor productivity than Old Europe. At firm level, we find a significantly lower growth of labor productivity in firms that employ more flexible workers and/or have a larger labor turnover. This holds, in particular, in sectors in which the Schumpeter II innovation model is dominant.
About the speaker
Alfred Kleinknecht (born 1951) graduated in economics in Berlin (1977) and got a PhD in Amsterdam (1984). He has worked at the Berlin Wissenschaftszentrum (1978-80), at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (1980-84), at the Universiteit Maastricht (1984-88), and at the Universiteit van Amsterdam (1988-1994)
1994-1997: Professor of Economics at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
1997-2013: Professor, Economics of Innovation, TU Delft
2006: Visiting Professor, Università La Sapienza, Rome
2008/09: Visiting Professor, Université Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris
2013-2017: Visiting Researcher at the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung at Düsseldorf
2011- … Non-Executive Board Member of Prodrive Technologies, Science Park Eindhoven
2011-12: Best Lecturer of the Faculty
2012: Nomination by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands as 'Ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau'
Venue: Room A0.24 (SBE, TS 53)
Date: 15 March 2017
Time: 12:00 - 13h30 CET
