The Netherlands and its neighbours; a fiscal cost benefit analysis

The study shows that a high tax burden is quite compatible with a high level of welfare and prosperity. In nearly all respects, the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands outperform the continental, Mediterranean and Anglo-Saxon countries. Poverty is low, older people are better off, there is less discrimination, and the level of health care and education is higher. These countries score high on the Lisbon agenda of social cohesion, economic resilience and dynamism. A high level of prosperity and welfare requires an active labour market policy, however, with sanctions for those not willing to work. Specific points of attention for the Netherlands are child poverty in single-parent households in which the parent does not work, the relatively little use that is made of child-care facilities and pre-primary schooling for emancipation and integration purposes, the lag in research and development, and above all the lack of trust in social institutions.

This publication is in Dutch.