This paper investigates the impact of the emergence of China and Eastern Europe as increasingly important players on the world market for a small open economy such as the Netherlands. We describe and compare in detail revealed comparative advantages across the different country groups. This...

The European electricity and gas markets have been going through a process of liberalisation since the early 1990s. This process has changed the sector from a regulated structure of, predominantly, publicly owned monopolists controlling the entire supply chain, into a market where private and...

This report analyses the broadband market and asks whether a specific role of government is necessary. As broadband telecommunication is seen as a source of productivity gains, the European Union and other regions are encouraging the deployment of a secure broadband infrastructure. In the...

Since the mid eighties, re-exports in the Netherlands has been booming, with the exception of a short interruption in 2001 and 2002. This research shows that a relatively strong growth of re-exports is not just a Dutch phenomenon, but that there is an international trend going on. Re-exported...

The financial crisis is still spreading and deepening and is making inroads on the real economy. Forecasting is always "work in progress" but the exceptional situation today makes it feel like shooting at a moving target from a ship on the high seas. The forecasts of the Working Group were...

Consolidation of the tax base in the European Union is expected to curve compliance costs and reduce profit shifting. A number of proposals for consolidation from the European Commission are simulated with the applied general equilibrium model CORTAX. We show that the benefits from...

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...

Increasing labour market flexibility is at the top of the European agenda. A new and challenging view is a lack of mobility in the labour market may arise from rigidities in the housing market. The research in this book has been inspired by the intriguing hypothesis put forward by Andrew...

This paper provides unique survey evidence on consumer awareness about deposit insurance and on consumer perception of the stability of small and systemic banks. It turns out that systemic banks are perceived as less risky compared to non-systemic banks and that respondents’ own bank is...

The authors analyze a general search model with on-the-job search and sorting of heterogeneous workers into heterogeneous jobs. This model yields a simple relationship between (i) the unemployment rate, (ii) the value of non-market time, and (iii) the max-mean wage differential. The latter...