Since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, the Dutch economy lost 6% of gdp relative to Germany, even though the Netherlands (unlike the GIPSI countries) did not face serious problems to finance its sovereign debt. This bad performance is explained by the interaction of fiscal policy...

The paper applies Ricardo's principle of comparative advantage to analyze the substitutability between types of labor. The problem of having to classify labor in a small number of types in e.g. standard CES models are avoided by applying a continuum of worker and job types, where better skilled...

While the employment effects of minimum wages are usually reported to be small (suggesting low substitutability between skill types), direct estimates suggest a much larger degree of substitutability. This paper argues that this paradox is largely due to a bias induced by the aggregation of...

The Portuguese economy has been characterised by modernisation sincethe post-war period. Lisbon and the Tagus Valley is a centre of thisprocess. Hence, this region faces a high demand for highly skilledlabour. This paper analyses rates of return on human capital in theregion of Lisbon and in the...

In a corporatist country, of which the Netherlands is an example, wages should not be distinguished by union membership status, but by the bargaining regime. Four bargaining regimes can be distinguished: (i) company level bargaining, (ii) industry level bargaining, (iii) mandatory extension of...