Location and agglomeration of FDI in The Netherlands: implications for policy

Understanding the determinants of the location of MNE affiliates has become increasingly important for policy makers at the local, regional, national, and supra-national level, as investment promotion schemes are increasingly seen as an important cornerstone of the industrial development of most countries and regions. We examine some of the factors that explain an MNE’s choice for a particular region within the Netherlands, and investigate whether agglomeration patterns can be detected, and how this establishment pattern relates to domestic firms. We also investigate if there are differences in locational choice prompted by the home country of the foreign investor. The results suggest that the determinants of location vary by home country and the nature of the affiliates, and also differs from the behaviour of domestic firms. We suggest that FDI promotion policies need to be aligned with industrial policy if governments are to benefit from the externalities that derive from MNE affiliates.Economics ;

Dutch Manufacturing MNEs in the United States, 1950-1995

This paper explores the importance of Dutch investments in the US manufacturing industry over the period 1950-1995.Until the mid-1970s Dutch investments, though considerable, were primarily concentrated in the petroleum sector and therefore natural-resource seeking in nature. Dutch MNEs have gradually expanded their operations in the US in response to the changing competitiveness of the US relative to the Netherlands. The extent and structure of Dutch value-adding activities in the US reflect the changing motives for the investments. Dutch FDI activity has gone from trade-supportive in the 1950s and 1960s, to import-substituting and market-seeking in the 1970s, and rationalized and efficiency-seeking in the 1980s. There are also indications of strategic asset-seeking FDI activity in the late 1980s and early 1990s in line with the developments associated with the age of alliance capitalism. In the early 1980s, the Netherlands was the largest investor in the US, but both the UK and Japan have taken over this position since. Dutch investments show a reorientation towards Europe with the increasing importance of the EU, and although the Netherlands still lists high on the ranks of competitive countries, the Ownership advantages of Dutch firms have declined relative to those of UK and Japanese firms.international economics and trade ;

Globalisation and the Small Economy: The Case of the Netherlands

In this paper, we have examined the importance and implications of globalisation due to FDI for one particular small country: the Netherlands. Although it has limited resources and size, the Netherlands is home to the sixth largest outward FDI stock in the world, and also is one of the most important destinations for inward FDI activity. Its location advantages are, inter alia, a function of its de facto market size, given its central location within the EU, and its well developed infrastructure. Furthermore, the growing competitiveness of the service sector in the Netherlands plays a pivotal role. Other small economies can benefit from the Dutch experience, by investing in improving their competitiveness, since usually their activities are concentrated in only a few sectors. The need to maintain and upgrade their location advantages, by adopting new technologies and upgrading their created assets, is central to their survival.economics of technology ;

Each book its own Babel:Conceptual unity and disunity in early modern natural philosophy

Natural philosophy changed quickly during the early modern period (1600-1800). Aristotelian philosophy was combated by Cartesian mechanicism, which was soon itself ousted by the Newtonian school. The development of new ideas within a scientific discipline is partially an issue of doing empirical research, in order to exclude positions and progress the field. However, it is also an issue of developing new concepts and a fitting language, in order to be able to express all these new positions being investigated. This second development however also implies that the differences between thinkers might grow too large - the languages in which they express their philosophy can become too different for them to have a meaningful discussion. In this dissertation I investigate, using algorithms that extract the meaning of words from texts, a few hundred texts from these three different school. I do this in order to see how they differ from each other conceptually, how the meaning of words can travel through lines of influence from author to author and how guarding the boundaries of a school and guarding the language they use, relate

Each book its own Babel:Conceptual unity and disunity in early modern natural philosophy

Natural philosophy changed quickly during the early modern period (1600-1800). Aristotelian philosophy was combated by Cartesian mechanicism, which was soon itself ousted by the Newtonian school. The development of new ideas within a scientific discipline is partially an issue of doing empirical research, in order to exclude positions and progress the field. However, it is also an issue of developing new concepts and a fitting language, in order to be able to express all these new positions being investigated. This second development however also implies that the differences between thinkers might grow too large - the languages in which they express their philosophy can become too different for them to have a meaningful discussion. In this dissertation I investigate, using algorithms that extract the meaning of words from texts, a few hundred texts from these three different school. I do this in order to see how they differ from each other conceptually, how the meaning of words can travel through lines of influence from author to author and how guarding the boundaries of a school and guarding the language they use, relate

De Houdbaarheid van Kurt Gödels Wiskundige Intuïtie

Wiskunde heeft filosofen al eeuwenlang beziggehouden en nog steeds bestaat er een levendig onderzoek naar dit onderwerp binnen de filosofie. De ontologie van de wiskunde is een belangrijk onderdeel van deze filosofie van de wiskunde. Binnen de ontologie van de wiskunde vindt men vragen als: ‘wat is een getal?’, ‘over wat of welke dingen gaat wiskunde?’ en ‘gaat wiskunde over dingen?’ Een mogelijk antwoord op deze vragen wordt gegeven door het platonisme. Het platonisme stelt dat wiskunde gaat over objecten die abstract en onafhankelijk van het menselijk denken zijn. Bovendien zijn het deze objecten die de wiskunde waar maken. Eén van de grootste problemen waar een wiskundig platonist mee te maken heeft, is dat hij niet kan verklaren hoe het kan dat wij kennis van deze abstracte objecten hebben. Voor dit epistemologische probleem moet de platonist een oplossing zien te formuleren. Een mogelijke oplossing voor dit probleem vinden we bij de logicus Kurt Gödel. Het is deze oplossing, Gödels notie van ‘wiskundige intuïtie’ (voorts: wiskundige intuïtie), die het onderwerp is van dit paper. Dit paper zal zich richten op de houdbaarheid van wiskundige intuïtie zoals ingezet door Kurt Gödel, namelijk als een epistemologisch vermogen om ons inzicht in wiskunde en haar axioma’s mee te verschaffen. Dit paper bestaat uit vijf onderdelen. Ten eerste zal ik uiteenzetten wat wiskundige intuïtie bij Gödel inhoudt en hoe deze positie zich verhoudt tot het wiskundig platonisme. Gödel achtte deze stroming binnen de ontologie van de wiskunde zeer nauw verbonden met wiskundige intuïtie. Ten tweede zal ik twee kritieken op Gödels opvatting over wiskundige intuïtie behandelen. De auteurs van deze twee kritieken, Paul Benacerraf en Charles Chihara, zetten argumenten in die in hun ogen niet alleen de plausibiliteit maar ook de houdbaarheid van wiskundige intuïtie aantasten. Hoewel er andere kritieken mogelijk zijn, wil ik me in dit paper tot deze twee kritieken beperken. Ten derde zal Gödels eigen argument voor wiskundige intuïtie uiteen worden gezet. Dit argument sluit aan op de praktijk van het ontdekken van nieuwe axioma’s in de wiskunde, geïllustreerd aan de hand van de continuümhypothese. Ten vierde beschouw ik een mogelijk filosofisch gevolg van Gödels eerste incompleetheidsstelling. Dit gevolg heeft te maken met de aard van wiskundige kennis. In dit verband zal ik tevens de kenleer van Immanuel Kant en David Hume bespreken. Ten slotte beschouw ik een argument voor wiskundige intuïtie op basis van de functie die wiskundige afbeeldingen zouden moeten innemen in de wiskundige praktijk. Een aantal van de argumenten die ik doorheen dit paper zal geven zijn directe argumenten voor wiskundige intuïtie. Het doel van dit paper is echter niet de lezer te overtuigen van de correctheid of het bestaan van wiskundige intuïtie. Ik wil niet pleiten voor de geldi