Dutch policy makers recently set the public debate on ageing alight by enforcing drastic cuts in early retirement opportunities; increasing taxation of the aged and augmenting retirement age are also considered.<br /> The prime argument is to diminish a burden on public finances far in future. This...

The paper is part of a broader international project undertaken by the ILO and the European Commission. It studies the Dutch minimum wage from the perspective of country differences in minimum-pay regulations within the European Union with the aim of serving as an input into a discussion whether...

By way of introduction This report provides the fi rm foundation for anchoring the research that will be performed by the GINI project. It subsequently considers the fi elds covered by each of the main work packages: ● inequalities of income, wealth and education, ● social impacts, ●...

The paper shows that the growing employment gap between Europe and the USA over recent decades reflected the failure of services-employment rates in Europe to converge to American levels whilst European employment rates in goods production were falling rapidly towards those of the USA. The...

We examine in detail the changes in household expenditures patterns, and in particular services related expenditures, in the Netherlands over the years 1979, 1989 and 1998. Using Engel curve estimations, these changes are related to changes in household demographics, employment, the budget and...

Why is Europe's employment rate almost 10 percent lower than that of the United States? This "jobs gap" has typically been blamed on the rigidity of European labor markets. But in <i>Services and Employment</i>, an international group of leading labor economists suggests quite a different explanation....