European welfare states face serious financial difficulties caused by persistent high levels of unemployment and demographic ageing. Serious organisational problems are accompanied by inefficiency. Fiercer international competition and closer European integration put pressure on social policy in...

In recent years European employers, unions and governments have developed initiatives that offer employees the right to exchange certain items within an agreed package of employment conditions. So far, the available evidence on the use of such 'cafeteria systems' is largely based on survey data...

This paper is part of a project that attempts to reveal the way labour market institutions, human capital and labour productivity are interconnected. First we discuss two approaches in the human capital theory, stressing some difficulties that could be solved if the approaches are combined. It...

The paper presents the findings of comparative and interdisciplinary legal and economic study on managing labour redundancies in seven EU member countries. It is structured for comparability between the systems examined. The introductory section contains an account of the evolution of the Dutch...

To improve individuals' work-life balance, trade unions, employers' organizations, governments and the European Commission currently promote a life course perspective in activating labour market policies. In 2006, the Life Course Savings Scheme (Levensloopregeling) was introduced in the...

The central question of this article is whether or not effectiveness and efficiency are improved by the stronger reliance on markets given Dutch labour market institutions and their resulting corporatist wage formation. In answering this question, besides the influence on the production costs...