Beyond the mean: essays on labor and housing economics

This thesis contains four essays on labor and housing economics in The Netherlands. Chapter 2 examines the effect of a new housing market regulation on access to homeownership. This regulation implies that prospective homeowners have to pay part of the expenses out-of-pocket. There is an increasing concern that this measure hampers homeownership. However, I find that the regulation had a limited effect on the probability to become homeowner.The two chapters thereafter concern wage inequalities between employees. The third chapter analyzes wage gaps between the public and private sector. An important trade-off here is that if public sector wages drop relative to those in the private sector, the government might be unable to attract high-quality staff. I find that wages of public sector employees are on average higher. However, employees at the top of the wage distribution are better off in the private sector.Chapter 4 examines wages of employees with a flexible contract. They face more uncertainty for which they should be compensated for under competitive labor markets. However, I find a negative wage differential for flexible employment, in particular for temporary agency workers. The wage differential is larger for men than for women and it increases with the level of education.The fifth chapter addresses the relation between homeownership, unemployment and interregional migration. In theory, individuals move out of regions with high unemployment rates. I only find a small effect of regional unemployment on interregional migration. Renters in the private sector and commuters are more likely to migrate

Het effect van demografische ontwikkelingen op economische groei

Demografische ontwikkeling speelt een grote rol bij het analyseren van economische groei. Dat wordt vaak over het hoofd gezien: de afgelopen decennia was bevolkingsgroei een belangrijke aanjager van economische groei in de Verenigde Staten, terwijl ze de Nederlandse economische groei maar beperkt stimuleerde en de Japanse zelfs afremde. In de Verenigde Staten en Japan zetten de positieve, respectievelijk negatieve demografische ontwikkelingen met betrekking tot de economische groei de komende decennia door. In Nederland zal het effect op de economische groei omslaan van positief naar negatief. De verhoging van de pensioenleeftijd vertraagt dit omslagpunt

Market Concentration and Price Formation in the Global Cocoa Value Chain.

This report explores to what extent market concentration in the cocoa value chain is responsible for the widespread poverty of cocoa farmers. The report finds that market concentration among chocolate manufacturers and cocoa processors is not the key cause. Instead, there are two other key reasons why most cocoa farmers live in extreme poverty. The first is the fact that the productivity of cocoa farmers is very low, particularly in West Africa. The second is that there are many cocoa farmers without realistic alternative income options. As a result, these farmers continue to supply cocoa even at very low prices. While raising productivity can help individual cocoa farmers to earn a better income, this cannot be a sustainable solution for all farmers, as this would result in an oversupply of cocoa and an even lower cocoa price. The best solution is to create conditions that would allow cocoa farmers to earn alternative income sources and become less dependent on cocoa