Matthias Mertens

Matthias Mertens serves as a Research Scientist at MIT FutureTech (affiliated with MIT Sloan School of Management and CSAIL) and Research Affiliate at Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) since May 2024. His academic foundation includes master's degrees in Economics and Economic Law from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and a PhD from Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, with prior visiting research at Harvard University (January-May 2023).

His research spans Firm Dynamics, Labor Economics, and Macroeconomics, with specific expertise in market power, productivity analysis, and the economics of AI. Current investigations examine labor market power effects on wage inequality, firm concentration dynamics in Europe, and minimum wage impacts on productivity. His work leverages extensive German manufacturing data and cross-country micro-aggregated datasets covering 20 European nations.

Mertens' publication record demonstrates consistent focus on structural economic transformations, with recent articles in the International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of the European Economic Association, and World Economy. His research methodology combines rigorous firm-level empirical analysis with theoretical modeling of market imperfections and technological change.

Professional engagements include active collaboration with IWH's Department of Structural Change and Productivity and MIT FutureTech's interdisciplinary research initiatives at the intersection of computer science and economic policy. His work on labor-input substitution patterns represents a significant recent contribution to understanding evolving production technologies across 12 countries.