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...

The educational attainment of the Dutch labour force is lower than in neighbouring countries. Despite this worrying picture, and the fact that financial resources devoted to education are relatively small, it is argued that increasing public expenditure is not the obvious answer. As the social...