This paper investigates the effects of education vouchers for teachers. We study effects on enrollment and completion of higher education programs, and on the retention of teachers in the education sector. We do this by exploiting a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. Read also the...

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are a frequently occurring type of cybercrime, with potentially large costs to the real economy. We propose a simple model of the size and direction of DDoS attacks. The main predictions of the model are that effective botnets are located in...

A consequence of melting Arctic ice caps is the commercial viability of the Northern Sea Route, connecting North-East Asia with North-Western Europe. This will represent a sizeable reduction in shipping distances and a decrease in the average transportation days by around one-third compared to...

The authors investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of alternative measures to increase standards in low-income countries. They do this in a two-country framework where (a) trade and standards in low-income countries are negatively related, and (b) free trade is no longer optimal for the...

We investigate four sources of uncertainty with CPB’s macroeconomic model SAFFIER: provisional data, exogenous variables, model parameters and residuals of behavioural equations. Uncertainty is an inherent attribute of any forecast. We apply a Monte Carlo simulation technique to...

This paper explains bilateral services trade using a gravity equation and compares the results with trade in goods. We analyse bilateral trade between the provinces of Canada and between the member states of the European Union. We conclude that the gravity equation explains the variability in...

The dynamic effects from EU membership are crucial for the new member states to catch up with the average income level in the old member states. To gauge the dynamic effects, we follow a two-step procedure in which a gravity equation for bilateral trade shows the trade effect of EU membership...

The market for higher education increasingly becomes an international market. Nowadays, the number of students studying abroad is substantial and increasing. Many governments stimulate students to study abroad by offering a wide range of grants. However, little is known on the returns to...

Unemployment rates as well as incomes per capita differ vastly across the regions of Europe. Labour mobility can play a role in resolving regional disparities. This paper focuses on the questions why labour mobility is low in the EU and how it is possible that it remains low. We explore...

This paper quantifies lifetime redistribution in Dutch occupational pension schemes associated with uniform pricing. Information about the extent of redistribution is important because it will influence the public acceptance of the pension system. The uniform contribution rate is split up into...