This report analyses three instruments aimed at increasing the reliability of electricity production. Read also the accompanying <a href="http://www.cpb.nl/en/pressrelease/3213057/government-measures-raise-security-energy-supply-are-expensive">press release</a> and Special Publication '<a href="http://www.cpb.nl/en/publication/energy-policies-and-risks-energy-markets-cost-benefit-analysis">Energy policies and risks on energy markets; a cost-benefit analysis</a>'. In the system of capacity markets, the transmission...

Since late 2004, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis has been using the macro-econometric model SAFFIER for its short-term and medium-term analyses. This model resulted from the integration of the quarterly model SAFE and the yearly model JADE. SAFFIER is a multi-purpose...

Many factors determine the location of business R&D projects, the most important being history, the supply of R&D labour, and the quality of the public knowledge infrastructure (including the science-industry knowledge transfer). The set of R&D locations in the Netherlands changes little over...

The existence of regional support programs presumes that labour markets in the Netherlands do not clear at the national, but at some local level. From a general equilibrium perspective, it is far from straightforward to identify the regional dimension of labour markets. This study argues that...

This study provides an overview of the policy of liberalisation that transformed the Dutch notary profession into one of the least regulated in Europe. We discuss the changes brought with the new Notary Act of 1999, the political debates and lobbying preceding the introduction of the Act, and...

The Dutch retail trade demonstrated a relatively meagre performance in terms of productivity (growth) during the 1990s, especially seen from an international perspective. This study analyses the productivity performance of the Dutch retail trade in more detail, and focuses on competition and...

This paper assesses how the system of Dutch collective arrangements redistributes between the rich and the poor. It incorporates the full life cycle in the measurements, rather than only the annual effects, and includes a larger part of the arrangements than is usually the case. The...

Starting with a 'greenfield' situation, we discuss reasons for market failure in road infrastructure provision. We show why it may not be optimal from a welfare perspective to leave road provision fully to the market and government intervention in this sector can improve welfare. Government...

Employment protection is a hotly debated topic. In this document we review the theoretical and empirical studies on the impact of employment protection. Subsequently, we confront the findings of these studies with the Dutch setup, and consider a number of reform options.

The success or failure of reforms aimed at liberalising markets depends to an important degree on consumer behaviour. If consumers do not base their choices on differences in prices and quality, competition between firms may be weak and the benefits of liberalisation to consumers may be...