The effects of competition on the quality of primary schools in the Netherlands

Do schools facing more competition in their neighbourhood perform better than schools facing less competition? As a measure of school quality, we look at the performance of pupils at the nationwide standard test (the so-called Cito test) in the final year of primary education. Since competition is likely to be endogenous to the quality of schools, we use the distance between the school and the town centre as an instrument for the level of competition faced by a school. The intuition is that schools located close to the town centre, which are easily accessible to a large number of parents, face more competition than schools located further away from the town centre. Using a large range of data on pupil, school and market characteristics, we find that school competition has a small positive significant effect on pupil achievement. An increase in competition by one standard deviation (comparable to 5 additional schools in the market) increases pupil achievement at the Cito test by five to ten percent of the mean standard deviation, so about less than one point. This result is robust to a large range of specifications.

The effect of competition on process and outcome quality of hospital care: An empirical analysis for the Netherlands

The paper focuses on the relationship between competition and quality in the Dutch hospital sector. We analyse the period of 2004-2008, in which a healthcare reform took place in the Netherlands, introducing competition in the healthcare sector. The increased attention to hospital quality and its growing importance in a new institutional environment have resulted in a gradual increase of the voluntary disclosure of quality indicators by Dutch hospitals. We use panel data on Dutch general and academic hospitals in 2004-2008, including both process indicators (e.g., share of operation cancellations on short notice and share of diagnoses within 5 days) and outcome indicators (e.g., mortality rates) of hospital quality. We take the correlation between the disclosure decision and the level of the disclosed quality indicators explicitly into account by estimating a bivariate model. We find that competition explains differences in performance on process indicators, but not on outcome indicators.

Gas exploration and production at the Dutch continental shelf: an assessment of the 'Depreciation at Will'.

This report analyses the effects of Depreciation at Will (DAW) on offshore gas production, government budget and employment in the gas industry. The DAW enables firms to accelerate deprecation of investments in platforms and other offshore equipment. The interest advantage due to the postponed payments of taxes raises the profitability of investment projects and, hence, could raise the level of investments. The key question in the debate on the DAW is whether the higher tax base compensates for the interest losses due to postponed tax receipts. The econometric analysis has shown that the DAW increased only the number of development drillings during the period this measure was implemented (1996-2002). A moving long-run average of the oil price has appeared to be a significantly explaining variable behind the level of exploration drillings as well as development drillings. Using the current value of that oil price, 25 dollar per barrel, we find a large number of profitable exploration projects. In the current circumstances, introduction of the DAW will not raise the level of investments in the near future, as several non-financial factors appear to be bottlenecks, such as the duration of licensing procedures. The econometric analysis is also published in A. ten Cate en M. Mulder, 2007, "Impact of the oil price and fiscal facilities on offshore mining at the Dutch Continental Shelf", Energy Policy , vol 35, pp 5601-5613.

Aggressive tax planning indicators; Final Report

The aim of this study is to provide economic evidence of the relevance of aggressive tax planning (ATP) structures for all EU Member States. The study relies on economic indicators available at macro-level and on indicators derived from firm-level data. The objective is indeed to look at the relevance of ATP for all Member States through these two complementary angles. For each indicator, the study identifies outliers based on a consistent methodology. None of the indicators provides per se an irrefutable causality towards aggressive tax planning. However, considered together, the set of indicators shall be seen as a "body of evidence". While there are some data limitation, the study provides a broad picture of which Member States appear to be exposed to ATP structures, and how it impacts on their tax base (erosion or increase). The discussed ATP structures can be grouped into three main channels: i) ATP via interest payments, ii) ATP via royalty payments and iii) ATP via strategic transfer pricing. In addition to general indicators assessing the overall exposure to ATP, we also derive specific indicators for each of the ATP channels. In combination, these indicators allow to classify entities within multinational enterprises (MNEs) into three types: i) target entities, where the tax base is reduced ii) the lower tax entities where the tax base is increased but taxed at a lower rate, and iii) conduit entities which are in a group with ATP activities but no clear effect on the tax base is observable

Aggressive tax planning indicators ; Final Report

The aim of this study is to provide economic evidence of the relevance of aggressive tax planning (ATP) structures for all EU Member States. The study relies on economic indicators available at macro-level and on indicators derived from firm-level data. The objective is indeed to look at the relevance of ATP for all Member States through these two complementary angles. For each indicator, the study identifies outliers based on a consistent methodology. None of the indicators provides per se an irrefutable causality towards aggressive tax planning. However, considered together, the set of indicators shall be seen as a "body of evidence". While there are some data limitation, the study provides a broad picture of which Member States appear to be exposed to ATP structures, and how it impacts on their tax base (erosion or increase). The discussed ATP structures can be grouped into three main channels: i) ATP via interest payments, ii) ATP via royalty payments and iii) ATP via strategic transfer pricing. In addition to general indicators assessing the overall exposure to ATP, we also derive specific indicators for each of the ATP channels. In combination, these indicators allow to classify entities within multinational enterprises (MNEs) into three types: i) target entities, where the tax base is reduced ii) the lower tax entities where the tax base is increased but taxed at a lower rate, and iii) conduit entities which are in a group with ATP activities but no clear effect on the tax base is observable

The Dutch System of Long-term Care. ENEPRI Research Report No. 90, 15 June 2010

Launched in January 2009, ANCIEN is a research project that runs for a 44-month period and involves 20 partners from EU member states. The project principally concerns the future of long-term care (LTC) for the elderly in Europe and addresses two questions in particular: 1) How will need, demand, supply and use of LTC develop? 2) How do different systems of LTC perform? This case study on The Netherlands is part of the first stage in the project aimed at collecting the basic data and necessary information to portray long-term care in each country of the EU. It will be followed by analysis and projections of future scenarios on long-term care needs, use, quality assurance and system performance. State-of-the-art demographic, epidemiologic and econometric modelling will be used to interpret and project needs, supply and use of long-term care over future time periods for different LTC systems

Analyse de sensibilité d’un modèle de potentiel aquifère élaboré àl’aide de l’analyse multicritère au niveau du Moyen Atlas tabulaire (Maroc)

article publié en français (p.31-41), avec un résumé étendu en anglais (p.42-43), et 6 planches couleur hors-texte (p.66-71)International audienceThe evaluation of groundwater potential appears to be an effective tool for the management of water resources, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions such as the Middle Atlas plateaus. This region consists essentially of dolomites and dolomitic limestones of the Lower and Medium Lias, favoring a large amount of groundwater above the impermeable substratum formed by Triassic red clays. These groundwater karstic origins play a crucial role for drinking water supply of the big cities (Meknes, Fes) and irrigation of surrounding areas. It is located between the Lambert Conformal Conic (Merchich Morocco) coordinates: 480 Km 15 l / s) are divided into 38% on the very high and high potential area, 33% on the medium potential zone and 29% on the low potential area very low. Drilling at low to very low flow rate (Q< 10 l / s) are distributed into 21% on the very high and high potential area, 24% on the medium potential area and 55% on the low to very low area. The groundwater potential of Middle Atlas plateaus is more important in the northwest because of its lithology in dolomitic limestones and calcareous more fractured and high degree of karstification. It is also important to note that more detailed field verification is required to validate and complement the results of this study and to develop a detailed mapping of discontinuities and geological units within sectors supposed to be potentially suitable for groundwater prospecting.L’évaluation du potentiel aquifère est un outil efficace pour la gestion des ressources en eaux, en particulier dans les régions arides à semi-arides. L’objectif principal de cette étude est d’identifier le potentiel aquifère en appliquant la méthode AHP de Saaty et en utilisant une analyse de sensibilité pour apprécier l’effet de chaque paramètre de recharge en eaux souterraines sur la carte de potentialité aquifère finale. L’analyse multicritère a été utilisé dans le but de localiser les zones potentielles de l’aquifère du Moyen Atlas-tabulaire. En effet, le potentiel aquifère a été subdivisé en 15% (très élevé), 31% (élevé), 19% (moyen), 18% (faible) et 14% (très faible). La validité du modèle développé a été testée par lesdonnées de forages. Cet aquifère karstique à un potentiel d’emmagasinement des eaux souterraines plus important dans la partie nord-ouest en raison de sa lithologie en calcaires dolomitiques plus fracturés et à karstification élevée

Groundwater potential of Middle Atlas plateaus, Morocco, using fuzzy logic approach, GIS and remote sensing

Groundwater is a most important resource in arid and semi-arid regions and is required for drinking, irrigation and industrialization. Assessing the potential zone of groundwater recharge is extremely crucial for the protection of water quality and the management of groundwater systems. To identify the groundwater potential zone in the study area, thematic layers of lithology, slope, karst degrees, land cover, lineament and drainage density were generated using topographic maps, thematic maps, field data and satellite image, and were prepared, classified, weighted and integrated in a geographic information system (GIS) environment by the means of fuzzy logic. The fuzzy membership values have been assigned to different thematic layers according to their classification on respect for their contribution and their occurrence in groundwater. Based on the generated groundwater potential map, it was found that about 8% of the investigation area was categorized as very high potential for groundwater recharge, 31% as high, 28% as moderate, 17% as low and 16% as very low potential for groundwater recharge. Finally, the results were verified using well-yield data. The highest recharge potential area is located towards the downstream regions related to more fractured and karstified limestone