We consider the choice to privatize the provision of a public good in a hierarchical model with three layers: a Central Government, a decentralized agency and a (private or public) manager. In a good governance regime the privatization can be devolved upon the decentralized agency while it...

This article studies the potential measurement errors when coding occupational data. The quality of occupational data is important but often neglected. We recoded open-ended questions on occupation for last and current job in the Dutch SHARE data, using the CASCOT ex-post coding software. The...

This paper reviews the main conceptual issues regarding the notion of Opportunity Cost of Public Funds (OCPF) and its use in normative economics. This notion occupies only a marginal and sometimes anecdotal role in the public economic literature and appears to be too often used without the...

This paper examines why organizations have adopted a wide range of responses when addressing the opportunities and threats posed by commoditization. Some may choose to focus on their cost base, whilst others may focus on innovation. Whatever strategy is adopted, it will be driven by a range of...

The ever greater role given to public participation by laws and regulations, in particular in the field of environmental management calls for new operational methods and tools for managers and practitioners. This paper analyses the potentials and the critical limitations of current approaches in...

Water is scarce in many countries. One instrument to improve the allocation of a scarce resource is (efficient) pricing or taxation. However, water is implicitly traded on international markets, particularly through food and textiles, so that impacts of water taxes cannot be studied in...

After 10 years of abstinence from the European Monetary Union, should the UK be seriously thinking about joining the Eurozone? Especially in view of the European Central Bank's improved reputation as a crisis manager in the wake of the financial crisis, could EMU represent a safe haven for the...

China's economic and diplomatic ascendancy over the past decade has been nothing short of phenomenal in terms of world history. It has seen its influence on the world stage grow from being a bit part player at the start of the 20th century, when its territory sovereignty was encroached upon by...

We model a continuous double auction with heterogenous agents and compute approximate optimal trading strategies using evolution strategies. Agents privately know their values and costs and have a limited time to transact. We focus on equilibrium strategies that are developed taking into account...

We study the relation between cognitive abilities and stockholding using the recent Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which has detailed data on wealth and portfolio composition of individuals aged 50+ in 11 European countries and three indicators of cognitive abilities:...