The economic perspective on values and norms shows that they may bring about externalities for the society as a whole. This possibility of market failure provides a good reason for the government to follow closely the developments in values and norms, and the resulting behaviour in communities...

In de EMU vormt het arbeidsmarktbeleid het belangrijkste instrumentarium om op nationaal niveau asymmetrische schokken op te vangen. De algemene beleidswens daarbij is om - in overeenstemming met de Lissabon strategie - de arbeidsmarktflexibiliteit te verhogen. Tussen de EMU-lidstaten bestaan...

This paper models the propagation at the macro level of four types of shocks using the SVAR approach. Time series data for the Netherlands on job creation, job destruction, the number of vacancies and labour supply are used to identify aggregate demand and supply shocks, and reallocation demand...

The wage level in The Netherlands is, by a large part, determined in collective labour agreements. However, the result of the processes of job destruction, job creation and job-to-job mobility is that workers move from less productive to more productive jobs. Our empirical analysis shows that...

This paper provides a review of the economic literature on social security systems and of practical experiences with building social security institutions. The focus is on the design of the institutions, and on the complicated relation between social security, economic welfare and economic...

Between 1982 and 2000, the Netherlands experienced a remarkable economie recovery. Labour participation rose from a European low of 52 percent to the European average of 65 percent. Unemployment decreased from a high of 14 percent to a present-day low of 2% percent, while government finances and...

This study presents an explorative econometric analysis of the influence of labour market flows on wage formation. It applies the vector cointegration and common trends methodology of Johansen (1995). According to this approach, a combination of the flow of layoffs (flow from employment to...

Strikes as a consequence of labour conflicts occur about 28 times as much in France as in the Netherlands. This paper examines the institutional differences underlying these differences in strike activity. Our empirical analysis shows that strike activity is high in France if workers were...

This paper estimates the short run and long run influences of the main determinants of the German long-term interest rate using quarterly data for the period 1982-1999. A major reason for our focus on the German interest rate is that this rate, and hence its determinants, will be dominant in...

In the institutional set-up of (economic) policy preparation in the Netherlands there is ample interaction between scientific insights and policy proposals. This Dutch polder model lays much emphasis on the social dialogue to come to an agreement on, and have public support for policy proposals....