Collectivism versus individualism in Dutch employment relations

From a very centralistic and collectivistic tradition after World War Two, Dutch employment relations now show a trend towards radical decentralisation and individualisation. What might be the consequences of this trend for labour relations? Do developments still fit within a movement towards ‘organised decentralisation’ or will the existing system of labour relations be hollowed out and destroyed? And what will be the consequences for ER management at company level? We present empirical data on how companies deal with their decentralised and individualised employment relations. It appears that, in the main areas such as labour contracts, working time arrangements, reward systems and development plans, decentralisation and individualisation are taking place. It has also become clear that management as well as workers support this and that a new form of negotiation between them is developing at workplace level, resulting in what we call ‘third contracts’ that are additional to the initial labour contract and the collective agreement. Our results also highlight the pragmatic way in which companies deal with these decentralised and individualised employment relations, which, nevertheless, remain linked to the national and collective levels of bargaining. Within the multilevel system of Dutch employment relations a new balance between collectivism and individualism is emerging.     

Innovation,actors and institutions: change and continuity in local development policy in two Hungarian regions

This article focuses on institutional and policy innovation in two Hungarian regions. We analyse the responses of the local elites in these two regions to the post‐1989 challenges and discuss how they have tried to innovate local economic policy in order to promote economic development. Also, we will consider to what extent they have been constrained or facilitated by historically developed institutions. We conclude that the more successful innovation strategies have been those which have at least partially been based on historically accumulated institutional resources. These have been selectively employed in innovative ways and form essential building blocks of the regions' new development strategies. Also, the cases suggest that economic development, as well as the accumulation of institutional resources over time, do not necessarily follow one homogeneous path but may combine several simultaneous paths. Different combinations, then, result in diverse sets of institutional resources which affect the capacity for innovation. Cet article est consacréà l'innovation institutionnelle et politique dans deux régions hongroises. Il analyse les réponses des élites locales aux défis de l'après‐1989, montrant comment elles ont tenté de concevoir une politique visant à faciliter l'expansion économique régionale. Il étudie ensuite dans quelle mesure elles ont été entravées ou soutenues par les institutions d'origine historique. En conclusion, les stratégies d'innovation les plus fructueuses ont été celles qui se sont appuyées, au moins en partie, sur des ressources institutionnelles accumulées depuis longtemps. Ces derniegrave;res ont été exploitées ponctuellement selon des modalités novatrices, devenant les composantes essentielles des nouvelles stratégies de développement des régions concernées. L'expansion économique, de même que l'accumulation historique de ressources institutionnelles, ne suivent pas obligatoirement un seul chemin homogène, combinant parfois plusieurs sentiers parallèles. Des combinaisons différentes produisent ainsi des ensembles variés de ressources institutionnelles, lesquels influent sur la capacité d'innovation.     

Modeling Space Market Dynamics: An Illustration Using Panel Data for US Retail

Real estate research has a long and extensive history of analyzing space market dynamics. Nonetheless, two areas have been under researched. Regional panels of data have been rarely analyzed. Moreover, due to data constraints, the retail market has been studied much less than other market segments. This paper addresses both of these topics through an analysis of Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) level panel data. Our study covers almost three decades of annual retail data for 11 of the largest MSAs of the United States. We estimate a long run rent model and use Error Correction Models for short run rent, vacancy and supply adjustments. We test for differences in local market behavior in both the long run equilibrium relationships and in the short run adjustment processes. We identify two groups of similar markets.     

Exploring people's viewpoints on air travel and climate change: understanding inconsistencies

This study aims to objectify people's subjective viewpoints toward air travel and climate change. Using an online questionnaire, a series of statements about aviation and the environment were scored by 491 subjects in the Netherlands. Through factorization of the response patterns six distinct viewpoints on aviation and climate change are revealed and identified as integration, ignorance, denial, necessity, guilt and indulgence/fatalism. Each viewpoint is shown to be associated with fitting levels of air travel behavior and general environmental awareness. As in previous research, it is shown that air travel behavior does not significantly correlate with general environmental awareness. Notable differences were found, however, between those subjects under 30 years old and those over 30 years old: the older group were much more likely to claim both necessity and indulgence/fatalism as a reason for flying. The results add to our understanding of attitude-behavior inconsistency by revealing how people from their own standpoints reconcile and/or prevent possible inconsistencies between certain air travel behaviors and pro-environmental attitudes. Practically, the viewpoints offer more effective sustainability discourses, and point to several new policy measures to remove the “sting” from the denial position by enhancing the credibility of the “rationalization of lifestyle” discourse.     

Habits, hysteresis and catastrophes in labor supply

This paper investigates the implications of a general model of locally unstable habit formation with respect to consumption, household time and corporate time. The model is shown to imply multiple long-run equilibria exhibiting hysteresis and catastrophes dependent on rationings and the wage rate. This can explain profound changes in labor supply preferences and behavior such as when long-term unemployed become little motivated to get a new job or when former housewives develop a strong orientation towards paid work.     

Aggressive Orders and the Resiliency of a Limit Order Market

We analyze the resiliency of a pure limit order market by investigating the limit order book (bid and ask prices, spreads, depth and duration), order flow and transaction prices in a window of best limit updates and transactions around aggressive orders (orders that move prices). We find strong persistence in the submission of aggressive orders. Aggressive orders take place when spreads and depths are relatively low, and they induce bid and ask prices to be persistently different after the shock. Depth and spread remain also higher than just before the order, but do return to their initial level within 20 best limit updates after the shock. Relative to the sample average, depths stay around their mean before and after aggressive orders, whereas spreads return to their mean after about twenty best limit updates. The initial price impact of the aggressive order is partly reversed in the subsequent transactions. However, the aggressive order produces a long-term effect as prices show a tendency to return slowly to the price of the aggressive order.We thank Theo Nijman, Erik Theissen, Rob van den Goorbergh, Josef Zechner (editor) and an anonymous referee for valuable comments on an earlier draft as well as seminar participants at the EEA-conference in Venice, the CFS Conference on Market Design in Eltville, CORE, Leuven and Tilburg. The first and last authors gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from FWO-Flanders under contract G.0333.     

Partition function bargaining with public demands

In the partition function bargaining problem the value of a coalition depends on the coalition structure in which it is embedded. This paper applies the demand-making bargaining game of coalition formation to the three-player partition function bargaining problem. The values of some embedded coalitions appear to be strategically irrelevant. The strategically relevant values constitute a coalition function bargaining problem. A classification in terms of the associated coalition function bargaining problem is provided. For one of the three classes that are distinguished the set of equilibrium outcomes closely relates to the core of the associated coalitional problem. For another class of problems the equilibrium outcome corresponds to the Von Neumann-Morgenstern outcome. Received: February 14, 2000; revised version: December 13, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" I would like to thank Harold Houba and Gerard van der Laan for valuable discussions, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. This research was conducted while I was at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.     

The influence of the CEO's value perception towards auditing on audit demand in private firms

Audit demand is generally considered to be a direct reflection of the level of agency conflicts. This study examines the CEO's value perception towards auditing as additional driver for both auditor reputation demand (appointing a Big 4 auditor or not) and audit effort demand in private firms. Examining the CEO's value perception in a multidimensional way, the regression results indicate that the CEO's functional value perception towards auditing positively affects the demand for audit effort, while the CEO's social value perception towards auditing negatively affects the demand for audit effort but positively affects the demand for auditor reputation.     

The cost-effectiveness and monetary benefits of dabigatran in the prevention of arterial thromboembolism for patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation in the Netherlands

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) causes a significant health and economic burden to the Dutch society. Dabigatran was proven to have at least similar efficacy and a similar or better safety profile when compared to vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in preventing arterial thromboembolism in patients with AF.

Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness and monetary benefit of dabigatran vs VKAs in Dutch patients with non-valvular AF. Value-based pricing considerations and corresponding negotiations on dabigatran will be explicitly considered.

Methods: The base case economic analysis was conducted from the societal perspective. Health effects and costs were analysed using a Markov model. The main model inputs were derived from the RE-LY trial and Dutch observational data. Univariate, probabilistic sensitivity, and various scenario analyses were performed.

Results: Dabigatran was cost saving compared to VKAs. A total of 4,552 QALYs were gained, and €13,892,288 was saved in a cohort of 10,000?AF patients. The economic value of dabigatran was strongly related to the costs of VKA control that are averted. Notably, dabigatran was cost saving compared to VKAs if annual costs of VKA control exceeded €159 per person, or dabigatran costs were below €2.81 per day.

Conclusion: Dabigatran was cost saving compared to VKAs for the prevention of atrial thromboembolism in patients with non-valvular AF in the Netherlands. This result appeared robust in the sensitivity analysis. Furthermore, volume based reduction of the price in the Netherlands will further increase the monetary benefits of dabigatran.