"Joop" (Joost) Hartog (born in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands, on June 29, 1946) is a Dutch economist and an Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Amsterdam. He ranks among the most important Dutch labour economists and was elected to be a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001) and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. The Joop Hartog Dissertation Prize, a bi-annual prize for the best Ph.D. thesis defended at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Economics and Business, is named after Hartog.
Biography
A native of Sliedrecht, Joop Hartog studied at the Netherlands School of Economics (1964–70) and at Queen's University, Kingston, where he earned a M.A. in 1971. Thereafter, Hartog did a Ph.D. at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) under the supervision of C.J. van Eijk on the topic of personal income distribution, which he defended in 1978. After working several years at EUR, he became Professor of Microeconomics at the University of Amsterdam in 1981 and worked there until his emeritation. In parallel to his appointment in Amsterdam, Hartog has held numerous visiting appointments, e.g. as Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University, as Wertheim Fellow at Harvard University, or as visiting fellow at the European University Institute. Hartog helped found Labour Economics and has performed editorial duties for the European Economic Review, Economics of Education Review, and the Journal of Pay and Reward Management. Finally, he is also on the board of several boards and advisory councils, including the Dutch Council of Economic Advisors and the Hennipman Foundation.
Research
Joop Hartog's research focuses on education, wages, and migration. According to IDEAS/RePEc, Hartog belongs to the top 4% of economists in terms of research output.
Research on education
With regard to the economics of education, Joop Hartog has conducted research on overeducation and the returns to education, among else. Together with Hessel Oosterbeek, he finds that due to more higher education enrollment, undereducation in the Netherlands decreased throughout the 1960s and 1970s while overeducation increased, though the rate of return to education is positive even in cases of "overeducation", implying that overeducation doesn't necessarily imply private or social inefficiency. However, comparing the stylized facts of over- and undereducation in the U.S., Netherlands, UK, Portugal and Spain with models of search theory, human capital theory, and assignment, Hartog concludes that none of the models convincingly explains the earnings function associated with over- and undereducation. Together with Oosterbeek, he observes health, wealth or happiness among Dutch not to increase linearly in education: individuals with only a non-vocational secondary school degree are generally healthier, wealthier and happier than TVET or university graduates; moreover, they find IQ to increase health, social background to increase wealth, and being a woman to increase happiness. Finally, in work with Pedro T. Pereira and Jose A.C. Vieira, he finds returns to education in Portugal to have increased during the 1980s and early 1990s, especially since its accession to the European Union in 1986, though the returns to education grew most at the upper part of the wage distribution, thus also explaining part of the increase in Portuguese wage inequality in the 1980s.