Economic growth - theory
Economic growth - empirics
Technology adoption
Environmental economics
Sustainable water use
Dutch newspapers

Last updated: May 7, 2008

Economic growth - theory

My research on endogenous growth theory deals mainly with the relationship between the relative wealth of nations, economic growth, unemployment and the sectoral structure of economies. It has dealt with the role of trade unions, social security systems and downsizing in explaining the relative stagnancy of Europe versus the USA in terms of productivity levels and unemployment. It has also addressed the factors that potentially give rise to an intrinsic relationship between economic growth and unemployment in the context of an economy characterised by a dual labour market. Finally, explanations have been provided for the deindustrialization that is so characteristic for the development of the sectoral structure of indurstialized economies. They deal with the role of outsourcing of non-core activities and changing preferences associated with the increased maturity of economies. This research, among others, resulted in a book that is available from Edward Elgar. More recently, my research interests have shifted from technology development to technology adoption.

Publications and work in progress on economic growth - theory

Economic growth - empirics

The advent of endogenous growth theory has resulted in an extensive empirical literature aimed at finding the determinants of economic growth. An important issue that has gathered much attention since the seminal work of Levine and Renelt is the robustness of previously obtained results. I have addressed these issues in two papers, one studying the growth effects of government expenditures and taxation and another focusing on the robustness of previous results by using and developing a quasi-experimnetal meta-analytic approach.

Publications and work in progress on economic growth - empirics

Technology adoption

An important determinant of the rate of economic growth is the speed with which new technologies are adopted. My recent research has focused on this research issue, mainly in the context of an NWO project and a NOP-project. This has been done from three perspectives. From an endogenous growth perspective, the importance of vested interests in explaining the slow adoption of new technologies has been studied. It has been argued that vested interests may be related to age, with interesting implications for the impact of ageing. From an environmental perspective, the focus has been on providing explantions of the energy efficiency paradox. In a series of papers, we have been looking at the potential importance of learning effects, uncertainty and complementarities in explaining the slow adoption of seemingly superior technologies. Also the possibilities for subidies in speeding up adoption have been addressed. Based on a survey, we have studied the barriers that firms face in adopting energy saving technologies and the possibilities for policies in steering technology adoption.

Publications and work in progress on technology adoption

Environmental economics

My research on environmental economic has so far dealt with three major topics. These are technology adoption, the environmental Kuznets curve and the optimal timing of environmental policies aimed at fighting greenhouse gas emissions and stabilizing CO2 concentrations. The latter project is being performed in cooperation with the CPB where I am working for one day and a half a week. The research is part of the PRET-project financed by NWO.

Publications and work in progress on environmental economics

Sustainable water use

In the context of a European research project on sustainable water use in urban areas (with special attention in our case for Amsterdam). Our major focus in this project are the economic aspects of sustainable water use. Key issues are an assesment of the possibilities for employing economic instruments aimed at achieving sustainable water use and the responsiveness of consumers to price and income changes. In the latter project, meta-analytical techniques are used to understand the differences in price- and income elasticties of demand as they are observed in empirical studies.

Publications and work in progress on sustainable water use

Dutch newspapers

In the summer of 1997, we as a group of people from CentER, assessed the quality of the economic news in Dutch newspapers. The results of our research got a lot of attention in the Dutch press.

Publications and work in progress on dutch newspapers (all in Dutch)