Supply-side labour market reforms: A neglected cause of the productivity crisis


Alfred Kleinknecht, TU Delft

In spite of impressive stories about a Second Machine Age or Industry 4.0, growth rates of labour productivity in the US, Japan and Western Europe declined, during the last 10-15 years, to their lowest levels since World War II. Recent contributions on the productivity slowdown by mainstream economists produced an impressive amount of statistical data that certainly add to our understanding, but they fail addressing the negative impact of supply-side labour market reforms on innovation and productivity. I pre­sent theoretical arguments of how labour market deregulation can negatively influence innovation and productivity growth and I review empirical evidence.



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: UNU-MERIT, room 0.16

Date: 20 November 2017

Time: 15:00 - 16:00  CET


UNU-MERIT