The CAP reforms that the EU accepted in June 2003 will partially decouple direct income payments to farmers from production and make these payments conditional on cross-compliance. The reforms are driven by enlargement of EU membership, budgetary constraints, mounting pressures from diverse...

The fact that according to the celebrated Coase theorem rational parties always try to exploit all gains from trade is usually taken as an argument against the necessity of government intervention through Pigouvian taxation in order to correct externalities. However, we show that the hold-up...

One of the most conspicuous features of mergers is that they come in waves, and that these waves are correlated with increases in share prices and price/earnings ratios. We test four hypotheses that have been advanced to explain merger waves: the industry shocks, q-, overvaluation and managerial...

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the effects of mergers and acquisitions on the shape of the firm size distribution (FSD), by using data of the population of manufacturing firms in the Netherlands. Our analysis shows that M&As do not affect the size distribution when we consider the...

Abstract We provide an explanation for why centralisation of political decision making results in overspending in some policy domains, whereas too low spending persists in others. We study a model in which delegates from jurisdictions bargain over local public goods provision. If all of the...

Abstract In this paper we examine Richard Florida’s Creative Capital theory in comparison with Human Capital theory, using a cross section of Dutch cities as our sample. Employment growth in Dutch cities can be predicted both from local education levels and from the presence of a large...

We provide new empirical evidence on non-linear liquidity management in Dutch firms. Our results reveal that liquidity adjustment from below the target is significantly faster than from above. We find no evidence for bands of inaction around the target.

The impact of socio-economic background on a child's educational attainment has been discussed as a static concept so far. Existing economic literature as well as the psychology of education literature point however towards a dynamic process where the impact of socio-economic background depends...

The optimal value of the firm under the new Dutch income tax reform act in 2002, is reconsidered in this discussion paper. Tax shield of debt-financing and the aggregate tax payments of its joint investors are simultaneously considered. A more-period model is presented for making integrated...