De jongste 35 jaar ben ik met openbare financiën bezig, hetzij als onderzoeker (bij de Nationale Bank), als ‘spectateur engagé’ op het CVP-studiecentrum (CEPESS), als onderhandelaar van zeven regeringen en als minister van Begroting. Ik trek daaruit een aantal ‘lessen’.

This article challenges a popular understanding of the Wealth of Nations. According to this reading of Smith, self-interested, economic actors in free competition with each other unintentionally create a self-constraining system. This system, the “invisible hand” which governs market...

The new paradigm on ‘open innovation’ emphasises the increasing dependence of internal innovation’s on knowledge present outside the boundaries of the own organisation. Shaping a network with external partners is an important part hereof and implies strategic decisions on the level of the...

Specific assumptions about career paths, about how transitions influence career success and about the crucial competencies for career management dominate recent labor market thinking. These assumptions form the basis for current labor market policies, both in Flanders and in Europe. Yet, little...

This paper reviews the empirical literature on the degree of financial integration in EMU and analyzes whether the process of integration accelerated with the introduction of the Euro. If the launch of EMU expedited financial integration, this affected pricing of assets and optimal portfolio...

We explore to what extent composite indicators, capable of aggregating multidimensional processes into simplified, stylised concepts, are up to the task of underpinning the development of data based narratives for political advocacy of the EU reform process.

We compare the relative performances of a sample of 28 Swiss consular posts in Europe, North America and Asia using an input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. The aim is to compute for each post the minimum amount of input – Swiss employees and locally-hired staff and to help the...

Het concept ‘prestatie’ staat centraal in een moderne overheid. Toch is er niet noodzakelijk duidelijkheid gekomen over de algemene doelstellingen ervan. Wat betekent het wanneer men zegt dat het prestatieniveau van de overheid moet verbeteren? Prestaties en prestatiemanagement zijn veel...

The location of economic activity is a topic that has occupied economists’ minds for a very long time now. Where do firms locate? What determines location decisions? And more importantly, what is the influence of increasing integration on location outcomes? First nature theories are able to...