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Andries De Grip

Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and IZA, Germany

The relevance of informal learning at work is highly underestimated by both HR and public policy and needs more attention in economic research. I hope that HR professionals, policymakers, and academics will find World of Labor a useful tool to quickly learn the latest state of research in this field.

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Professor of Economics and Director of the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA), School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, the Netherlands

Research interest

Human capital development and depreciation, relations between ageing and retirement, worker-job mismatch, atypical employment, and firms' human resource management

Website

https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/a.degrip

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Member of the Labour Market and Education Committee of Dutch Social Economic Council (SER); Member of the Strategic Advisory Committee of the Dutch foundationTechniekTalent.nu

Past positions

Head of Research Training and Work, ROA, Maastricht University

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Free University, Amsterdam, 1987

Selected publications

  • “The impact of negatively reciprocal inclinations on worker behaviour. Evidence from a retrenchment of pension Rights.” Management Science (forthcoming) (with R. Montizaan, F. Cörvers, and T. Dohmen).

  • “Is part-time employment beneficial for firm productivity?” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 66:5 (2013): 1172–1191 (with A. Künn-Nelen and D. Fouarge).

  • “The effects of training on own and co-worker productivity: Evidence from a field experiment.” The Economic Journal 122:560 (2012): 376–399 (with J. Sauermann).

  • “Shattered dreams: The effects of changing the pension system late in the game.” The Economic Journal 122:559 (2012): 1–25 (with M. Lindeboom and R. Montizaan).

  • “The economics of skills obsolescence: A review.” In: A. de Grip, J. van Loo, and K. Mayhew (eds). The Economics of Skills Obsolescence, Research in Labor Economics: 21. Amsterdam/Boston: JAI Press, 2002; pp. 1–26.

article(s)

  • The importance of informal learning at work

    On-the-job learning is more important for workers’ human capital development than formal training

    Andries De Grip, June 2015
    Although early human capital theory recognized the relevance of workers’ experience, its focus was on education and formal training. Recent studies find that much of the performance of newly hired workers is driven by learning by doing or learning from peers or supervisors in the workplace. Descriptive data show that workers learn a lot from the various tasks they perform on the job. Informal learning at work seems to be relevant for all age groups, although it drives more of the performance of younger workers. Informal learning is far more important for workers’ human capital development than formal training courses.
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