Pleas for a level playing field, for instance in international trade, are often not well-founded. This is because it is not exactly clear what a 'level playing field' means. But even if it would be clear what the plea would imply, a level playing field is not always desirable from an economic...

This paper provides a survey of the economic literature on immigration. We first give an impression of immigration in the Netherlands in 1500-1960, followed by a discussion of the long term economic consequences of the mass migration preceding Word War I. We then discuss some literature which...

One of the main sections in the current draft of the 2011-2012 Interprofessional Agreement concerns the welfare adjustment of social benefits. This draft results from a long process and fits in with the law concerning the Solidarity Pact between the Generations, which established a structural...