This paper provides a survey of the economic literature on immigration. We first give an impression of immigration in the Netherlands in 1500-1960, followed by a discussion of the long term economic consequences of the mass migration preceding Word War I. We then discuss some literature which...

Pleas for a level playing field, for instance in international trade, are often not well-founded. This is because it is not exactly clear what a 'level playing field' means. But even if it would be clear what the plea would imply, a level playing field is not always desirable from an economic...

In the strategic trade policy literature, the firms typically make positive profits at equilibrium policy levels. We show that this is not always true when firms from the developed (North) and developing (South) countries compete in the Northern market. In particular, the South firm may be...

Globalisation is a highly controversial topic. Despite its potential for accelerating growth and reducing poverty (to which most policy makers and economist would agree) objections are often expressed about the position of developing countries, and a number of damaging side-effects of the...