Lei Delsen - Böcker

To what does the Netherlands owe their recent economic success? Will the polder model become the victim of its own success or will the threat come mainly from outside? In the Netherlands, polder are small communities hemmed in by dykes built to resist quickly rising tides, and hence imply communal effort to mediate harmful outside forces. Translated into economic terms, the polder model entailed tripartite cooperation between business, government, and labor to protect the nation's economic and social well being. Delsen evaluates recent changes in the Dutch economy brought on by globalization and American dominance and concludes that the polder model is reaching its end.Delsen argues that the market forces introduced by the purple governments imply a far-reaching adaptation of the unique Dutch economic order. The primacy of the market has resulted in a more flexible labor market, decentralization of the wage formation, modernization of the social security system, more competition on the goods markets, and liberalization and competition in the financial markets. More market forces within Dutch socioeconomic relations imply also that the aims of trade and industry have changed, and have become oriented toward short-term results and away from actions aimed at long-term continuity and consensus.

The unconditional basic income (UBI) has attracted renewed attention in academia, as well as in public discussions in recent years, and much has been written on the possible consequences of a UBI.

The unconditional basic income (UBI) has attracted renewed attention in academia, as well as in public discussions in recent years, and much has been written on the possible consequences of a UBI.

Institutions have both positive and negative effects on economic performance. The theoretical and empirical understanding of the roles played by institutions, norms and culture in the functioning of markets still is limited. This book contributes to a better understanding of the role played by institutions in economic life and to more balanced and better founded policy decisions related to the (re)structuring of industrial economies in response to the structural changes - internationalisation of the economies, the advances in information and communication technology and the ageing of populations - they all are confronted with.

The book presents the descriptive findings and analytical results from the recent representative European Union Company survey of Operating hours, Working times and Employment (EUCOWE) in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The EUCOWE-project is the first representative and standardised European company survey which covers all categories of firm size and all sectors of the economy. Several relevant questions are addressed on the basis of the survey, such as: What are the operating hours of the different European countries that form the six country studies of this research? What are the differences between sectors of activities and establishment sizes? By means of what type of working-time organisation are those operating hours accomplished? What is the relationship between operating hours and employment? The book is the most comprehensive analysis on Operating Hours, Capacity Utilisation, Working Times and Employment in the European Union available.

This volume is the second book based on comparative and comprehensive data from the 2003 representative European Union Company survey of Operating hours, Working times and Employment (EUCOWE) in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The EUCOWE project is the first representative and standardised European company survey which covers all categories of firm sizes and all sectors of the economy. This volume complements and builds on the first book published in 2007, in which the methodology and the descriptive national findings as well as some first comparative analytical results were presented. In this second book the EUCOWE research team presents in-depth cross-country analyses of the relationship between operating hours, working times and employment in the European Union. Six empirical chapters of this volume provide detailed comparative analyses of the determinants and consequences of the duration and flexibility of opening hours and operating times.