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 CEST
