Why do Part-Time Workers invest less in Human Capital than Full-Timers?

We analyze whether lower investments in human capital of part-time workers are due to workers’ characteristics or human resource practices of the firm. We focus on investments in both formal training and informal learning. Using the Dutch Life-Long-Learning Survey 2007, we find that part-time workers have different determinants for formal training and informal learning than full-time workers. The latter benefit from firms’ human resource practices such as performance interviews, personal development plans and feedback. Part-time workers can only partly compensate the lack of firm support when they have a high learning motivation and imagination of their future development.education, training and the labour market;

Is part-time employment beneficial for firm productivity?

This paper analyzes whether part-time employment is beneficial for firm productivity in the service sector. Using a unique dataset on the Dutch pharmacy sector that includes the work hours of all employees and a “hard” physical measure of firm productivity, we estimate a production function including heterogeneous employment shares based on work hours. We find that a larger part-time employment share leads to greater firm productivity. Additional data on the timing of labor demand show that part-time employment enables firms to allocate labor more efficiently. First, firms with part-time workers can bridge the gap between opening hours and a full-time work week. Second, we find that during opening hours part-time workers are scheduled differently than full-timers. For example, we find that part-time workers enable their full-time colleagues to take lunch breaks so that the firm can remain open during these times.labour economics ;

Is the glass half full or half empty?: Perceptions of the scale and nature of corruption in the Netherlands

This paper summarises the empirical results of a study on the scale, nature and outcome of corruption cases in The Netherlands. It turns out that the number of convictions for corruption offences in The Netherlands has remained very stable in recent decades. Research into the nature of corruption leads to the conclusion that civil servants who are found to be susceptible to corruption tend not to be low-profile officials, but rather personalities with a reputation in the civil service organisation for being noticeable, colourful and astute 'fixers'. They frequently possess or demand the freedom to arrange matters on their own and are known as thorough and enterprising people. The research material further shows that the briber and the bribed usually know each other well before the violation of integrity occurs. This is not confined to business or instrumental relationships, because an element of friendship or affection is regularly involved. Something that plays a role in this setting is that trust is pivotal to prolonged corruption relationships. Research into the outcome of corruption cases leads to the conclusion that criminal prosecutions, once instituted, result, in nine out of ten instances, in a criminal conviction. Although suspects are sometimes acquitted on certain counts, complete acquittals are rare. The punishment most frequently handed down is a community service order. Combinations with other punishments occur regularly, with a custodial sentence or fine often being suspended. An average of five civil servants and three bribers actually end up behind bars each year

Micro- and macro economic effects of unconditional basic income and participation income:A systematic review

This paper reviews 48 studies on the micro and macro-economic effects of Unconditional Basic Income (UBI, including NIT or Negative Income Tax) and Participation Income related programs (PI). Compared to previous review studies in the field, it advances on viewing the broader (un)intended) effects on income, (mental) health, subjective wellbeing and related outcomes (trust, social participation, substance abuse, crime etc.). Given the increasing number of studies on UBI-like programmes, the review focuses on RCT field experiments and simulation studies of UBI-PI while leaving out conditional cash transfer programs (CCT) and laboratory experiments. All programmes aim at providing a guaranteed minimum income either for the population at large or for specific groups (such as unemployed). We employ a systematic review with the main purpose of bringing together and learning from the evidence on these broader effects. Our focus is on studies of the effects of the older programmes in Canada and the United States during the 1970s and 1980s and of the more recent programs in the European context from the 1990s on. Recent US/Canada studies re-estimating the found negative labor supply effects (notably for married women with children) in the original studies of the experiments, came to much lower and even insignificant estimates. The effects on reducing poverty and inequality but also on health and subjective wellbeing were however more positive. The studies on the European programmes and experiments (Finland, Spain, Netherlands) show slightly more positive but still mostly insignificant labour supply effects. More positive and significant effects were however found on subjective wellbeing, (mental) health and trust which are however less pronounced than in Canada and the US. Some welfare state lessons that can be drawn from these results are briefly discussed