Publications

The rising incidence of alternative work arrangements raises questions about worker outcomes in non-standard labor contracts. However, causal evidence on the effects of flexible contracts on labor market outcomes of... →

The ANW reform of 1996 in the Netherlands reduced the eligibility to survivor benefits for cohorts born after 1950. We find an increase in personal income (+23%) and labor force participation (+16%) for the widowers... →

How high is income inequality in the Netherlands? How progressive are taxes and how much income does government spending redistribute? This study presents the most exhaustive responses for the Netherlands to these... →

In this paper we show that the prediction errors for unemployment vary over the business cycle. We initially use a macroeconomic data for the United States, because these data are available for a longer period than for... →

If new businesses and establishments are more closely related to economic activities taking place in a region, is this associated with higher regional growth a few years later? In this paper, we investigate the... →

High growth firms receive a lot attention from policy. In many countries, policies to stimulate economic growth target startups -- loosely defined as young firms that often rely on new technology to develop scaleable... →

Dutch retirees – and individuals who are close to retirement – show a clear interest in two alternatives for the default lifelong flat rate annuity. In a survey experiment with over a thousand participants we investigated how appealing these different payout options are to retirees, and what influences their preferences. →

In 2013, a reform (the vermogensinkomensbijtelling) increased co-payments for long-term care for people with financial wealth. A shown in a new empirical study, it induced older people to postpone nursing home use, but only by a few days on average. The reform reduced the financial pressure on the long-term care system, but at the cost of raising the financial risk of older adults. →

Capital buffers help banks to absorb financial shocks. This reduces the risk of a banking crisis. However, on the other hand capital requirements for banks can also lead to social costs, as rising financing costs can lead to higher interest rates for customers. In this research we make an exploratory analysis of the costs and benefits of capital buffers for groups of European countries. →

In this paper, we investigate whether individuals obtaining problematic debts are more likely to use mental healthcare or social guidance and/or financial help, and whether they have higher mental healthcare costs. →