This paper examines the effect of a change in drugs policy on the age of onset of<br/>cannabis use. We use 2012 survey data from the Czech Republic where in 2010 a<br/>law was introduced decriminalizing personal possession of small quantities of several illicit drugs, including cannabis. We estimate the...

In almost all countries supply, distribution and use of cannabis is prohibited. Nevertheless, cannabis is the most popular illicit drug. Prohibition does not seem to work. The debate on legalization of cannabis is often emotional with strong views of both proponents and opponents but ignorance...

Since the mid-1960's the Netherlands has had an immigration surplus, mainly because of manpower recruitment from Turkey and Morocco and immigration from the former Dutch colony of Surinam.Immigrants have a weak labor market position, which is related to their educational level and language...

Slovakia is one of the Central European countries in transformation from a centralised command system to a decentralised market economy. Along with the transition of the economy came unemployment. Other than before workers who lost their job did not find a new job immediately. This paper studies...

This paper analyzes the determinants of lay-offs, job-to-job movements and total separations with a unique data set that combines information on individual firms and their workers. We are in particular interested in whether the lay-off policy of firms can explain the relatively high level of...

In this paper, we analyze how the share of immigrant children in the classroom affects the educational attainment of native Dutch children. Our analysis uses data from various sources, which allow us to characterize educational attainment in terms of reading literacy, mathematical skills and...

December 1, 1996 Portugal introduced a new law on working hours which gradually reduced the standard workweek from 44 hours to 40 hours. We study how this mandatory working hours reduction affected employment and earnings of workers involved. We find for workers who were affected by the new law...

This paper uses a dataset collected among inhabitants of Amsterdam, to study whether wages of prime age male workers are affected by the use of cannabis and cocaine.The analysis shows that cocaine use and infrequent cannabis use do not affect wages.Frequent cannabis use has a negative wage...

In empirical studies of sequential auctions of identical objects prices have been found to decline.We study auctions of ancient Chinese porcelain recovered from shipwrecks.In these auctions there are very long sequences of lots of identical objects.We find that the average price decline is...