register
Joop Hartog

University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and IZA, Germany

I think it is important that economic policies are based on sound economic evidence. Academic research that has relevance for economic policy should be made accessible for policy makers and a general audience

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Research interest

Education, wages, migration

Website

https://joophartog.nl/

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Member Council of Economic Advisors, advising Dutch Parliament, 2006–2007

Past positions

Professor of Economics, University of Amsterdam

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 1981

Selected publications

  • "Mincer earnings functions for the Netherlands 1962–2012." De Economist 164:3 (2016): 235–253 (with S. Gerritsen).

  • "Entrepreneurship and financial incentives of return, risk, and skew." Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 40:2 (2016): 249–268 (with P. Berkhout and M. van Praag).

  • "Why do we ignore the risk in schooling decisions?" De Economist 163:2 (2015): 125–153 (with L. Diaz-Serrano).

  • "Ethnic heterogeneity at neighbourhood level in the Netherlands." In: Nijkamp, P., J. Poot, and J. Bakens (eds). The Economics of Cultural Diversity. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015, 214–232 (with A. Zorlu).

  • "Starting wages respond to employer's risk." Scottish Journal of Political Economy 61:3 (2014): 229–260 (with P. Berkhout and H. van Ophem).

article(s)

  • The labor market in the Netherlands, 2001–2024 Updated

    The observations point to a marked underlying shift in bargaining power from unions to employers

    Wiemer SalverdaJoop Hartog, October 2025
    The Netherlands has long been an example of a highly and centrally institutionalized labor market paying considerable attention to equity concerns. Fracturing of the labor force by the rapid demise of the single-earner model and accelerating immigration, falling union density, and reductions in welfare state provisions have shrunk labor’s market power centrally and decentrally. Wages lagged far behind productivity growth, job security strongly declined and wage inequality increased. This comes to the fore with a lack of offensive union power when after 2016 labor demand accelerated and the economy and employment quickly reached new heights after the pandemic crisis.
    MoreLess