Health,disability and work: patterns for the working age population

We examine the role of health as a determinant of labour force participation, paying particular attention to the link between the two provided by disability insurance schemes. We first review the evidence on associations between health and labour force participation. Enrolment in disability insurance is not determined by health alone, and we highlight the main other causes that the literature has identified. In an application to The Netherlands, we follow the structure of the literature review and show that the trends in health and disability insurance enrolment look rather positive. In particular, the 1990 reforms of disability insurance might have been more effective than previously realised because part of their success was hidden by demographic change: The large number of baby boomers kept the absolute inflow high as they aged, despite large reductions in relative rates.     

Financial literacy and stock market participation

We have devised two special modules for De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) Household Survey to measure financial literacy and study its relationship to stock market participation. We find that the majority of respondents display basic financial knowledge and have some grasp of concepts such as interest compounding, inflation, and the time value of money. However, very few go beyond these basic concepts; many respondents do not know the difference between bonds and stocks, the relationship between bond prices and interest rates, and the basics of risk diversification. Most importantly, we find that financial literacy affects financial decision-making: Those with low literacy are much less likely to invest in stocks.     

Multi-store competition: Market segmentation or interlacing?

This paper develops a model for multi-store competition between firms. Using the fact that different firms have different outlets and produce horizontally differentiated goods, we obtain a pure strategy equilibrium where firms choose a different location for each outlet and firms' locations are interlaced. The location decisions of multi-store firms are completely independent of each other. Firms choose locations that minimize transportation costs of consumers. Moreover, generically, the subgame perfect equilibrium is unique and when the firms have an equal number of outlets, prices are independent of the number of outlets.     

Flexicurity – a European Approach to Labour Market Policy

Although linguistically somewhat strange, “flexicurity”, the combination of labour market flexibility and security for employees, has become a much praised cornerstone of European labour market policies. Obviously, in an environment with rapid technical progress and frequently changing market conditions, employers need to manage their labour force flexibly. In order to achieve this flexibility without creating an unbearable situation for employees, security is the second pillar of the concept. Security refers, however, to “employability” rather than safety from dismissal. As such, the concept looks like an innovative European way of consolidating economic and social interests, although some argue that much flexibility is gained while the security aspect is being neglected. The concept has been successfully adopted in some European countries, notably Denmark and the Netherlands. However, each country has to find its own concept of “flexicurity” using a distinct combination of instruments that fit the national institutional, social and civic context.     

Managing temporary workers: work identity,diversity and operational HR choices

Strategic HRM theory argues that organisations should distinguish different types of employees according to their value and availability. We argue that this has resulted in an underestimation of the importance of specific HRM practices in relation to temporary employees. Building on theoretical work that discusses the employment relationship for temporary employees, the process of identification with the organisation and different ways of managing diversity, we distinguish three approaches to the operational management of temporary employees. We explore two cases that reflect opposite ends of the scale. They illustrate the value of the theoretical framework and substantiate the claim that, even after the strategic choice for a lean, distanced and uninvolved temporary ‘employment mode’ is made, different operational HRM practices lead to differences in performance.     

The price of land and the process of expropriation

Summary The price of land and the process of expropriation This paper applies a game theoretic model to situations in which the Dutch government expropriates land from some farmers in order to create a new public project. The model is a version of a finite period bargaining model with asymmetric information and one-sided offers. It is shown that the model can explain some casual observations as the fact that usually, but not always, the government and the farmers settle by agreement.This article springs from a paper that was written for the course Non-cooperative Game Theory and its Applications, Erasmus University, Spring 1994. We would like to thank two anonymous referees for their very helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Illinois Walls: how barring indirect purchaser suits facilitates collusion

In its landmark ruling in Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois in 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court restricted standing to sue for recovery of antitrust damages to direct purchasers. However, antitrust damages are typically (in part) passed on to intermediaries lower in the chain of production and ultimately to consumers. We show that the Illinois Brick rule facilitates collusion. It allows an upstream cartel to shield itself from private damage claims by forwarding a share of cartel profits to its direct purchasers. These benefits dissuade the direct purchasers from exercising their exclusive right to sue for private damages. The cartel can achieve this by rationing inputs at low prices. Several U.S. antitrust cases show symptoms of “Illinois Walls.”     

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.