Increase in life expectancy is arguably the most remarkable by-product of modern economic growth. In the last 30 years we have gained roughly 2.5 years of longevity every decade, both in Europe and the United States. Successfully managing ageing and longevity over the next twenty years is one of...

Preferences and attitudes to illicit drug policy held by individuals are likely to be an important influence in the development of illicit drug policy. Among the key factors impacting on an individual's preferences over substance use policy are their beliefs about the costs and benefits of drug...

We present the results from a natural experiment in which single mothers on welfare were stimulated to find a job. Two policy instruments were introduced: an earnings disregard and job creation. The experiment was performed at the level of municipalities in The Netherlands, a country with...

The Great Recession is characterized by a GDP-decline that was unprecedented in the past decades. This paper discusses the implications of the Great Recession analyzing labor market data from 20 OECD countries. Comparing the Great Recession with the 1980s recession it is concluded that there is...

This paper studies the causes and consequences of in-season changes of the headcoach of association football teams. We exploit data from the highest level of<br/>Dutch professional football during 14 successive seasons. An in-season change of<br/>the head-coach depends on recent match results and the...

Cannabis is the most popular illegal drug. Its legal status is typically justified on<br/>the grounds that cannabis use has harmful consequences. Empirically investigating<br/>this issue has been a fertile topic for research in recent times. We provide an<br/>overview of this literature, focusing on studies...

Many immigrants in the Netherlands have poor Dutch language skills. They face problems in speaking and reading Dutch. Our paper investigates how these problems affect their labor market performance in terms of employment, hours of work and wages. We find that for female immigrants language...

We present a theoretical explanation of the gender wage gap which turns on the interaction between men and women in households.In equilibria where men are over-represented in full-time work, we show that firms rationally choose to hire women only at strictly lower wages than men.The model...

Kweywords: unemployment

This paper discusses developments in the Netherlands concerning unemployment insurance, unemployment assistance and disability insurance.The emphasis is on how incentives for individual workers and firms affect flows of benefit recipients.