The paper empirically investigates whether a lack of competition determines the poor productivity performance of the European business services. It uses detailed panel data for 13 EU countries over the period 2000-2005. We apply parametric and nonparametric methods to estimate the productivity...

This paper uses the exogenous variation caused by the Dutch tax reform of 2001 to investigate how married women react to financial incentives.<font face="CMR10" size="3"><font face="CMR10" size="3">Among OECD countries, the Netherlands has average female labor force participation, but by far the highest rate of part-time work. Our main conclusion is...</font></font>

The paper focuses on the relationship between competition and quality in the Dutch hospital sector. We analyse the period of 2004-2008, in which a healthcare reform took place in the Netherlands, introducing competition in the healthcare sector. The increased attention to hospital quality and...

The literature on the equity premium vigorously debates how to measure the premium, what is its size and what determines its variation. This study provides a quantitative survey of the literature through a meta-analysis. We identify how the size of the equity premium depends on the way it is...

Public spending on child care has taken a high flight in the Netherlands. One of the key policy goals of child care subsidies is to stimulate labour participation. We study the impact of child care subsidies on labour participation using a general equilibrium model.Next to the labour supply...

The Market Abuse Directive came into effect on 1 October 2005. One of its purposes is to reduce illegal insider trading and leakage of information prior to official releases by increasing penalties. This paper investigates the effects of the Market Abuse Directive through an event study...

Access regulation has been designed for PSTN and the liberalization of the PSTN market. This paper explores the effects of the regulation on consumers’ adoption of a new technology in the form of VoIP. It also discusses the link between access regulation and the incentives to invest in VoIP.

In the run-up to the Dutch general election on 22 November 2006, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) published an analysis of the economic effects of eight election platforms. The CPB conducted this analysis at the request of the political parties in question. This was the...

A consequence of melting Arctic ice caps is the commercial viability of the Northern Sea Route, connecting North-East Asia with North-Western Europe. This will represent a sizeable reduction in shipping distances and a decrease in the average transportation days by around one-third compared to...