The competitive paradigm predicts equivalent wages for equivalent workers, but significant gender gaps persist in many labor markets. This column analyses the gap in earnings between Spanish men and women, focusing on performance-related pay. It shows a strikingly large gap in pay and suggests that employer beliefs about unbalanced household tasks and outside options generate “a marriage premium” for males and a “marriage penalty” for women. Read the complete article on EUVOX here.
dinsdag 3 augustus 2010
Regionale gezondheidszorg lijkt mission impossible
Het Belgische gezondheidszorgsysteem is een bijzonder complex gebeuren. Niet alleen omdat er zoveel veeleisende belangengroepen zijn. Lees het opiniestuk van Bert Lauwers in Trends hier.
Van brugpensioen naar werkbrug
De werkloosheid begint te dalen. Maar niet voor iedereen. Lees het volledige commentaarstuk van Guy Tegenbosch in De Standaard hier.
Gemakkelijker ontslaan is soms goed voor de tewerkstelling
Een pleidooi om de ontslagregeling van de duurdere bedienden te versoepelen? RUDI DE KERPEL leest het graag. Uit zijn ervaring als bedrijfsleider put hij nog meer ideeën. Lees het volledige opiniestuk in De Standaard hier.
L'Inasti publie des statistiques interactives
Consultez en mode interactif les données pour 2009 ici.
Antoine défend le régime wallon d'écobonus
Le ministre wallon du Budget, André Antoine (cdH), a défendu, par voie de communiqué de presse, le régime wallon de primes aux voitures vertes, dont la réforme est critiquée par la fédération automobile Febiac.
Lisez l'article dans LLB ici.
Priorité à la pension légale
Alors que le préformateur Elio Di Rupo (PS) a repris du collier pour deux semaines de préformation en vue d’une future coalition fédérale, le Comité consultatif pour le secteur des pensions a présenté hier son "Avis au formateur et au futur ministre des Pensions".
Lisez l'article dans LLB ici.
maandag 2 augustus 2010
Renewables 2010: Global Status Report
The Renewables 2010 Global Status Report provides an integrated perspective on the global renewable energy situation. Since the first Global Status Report was produced five years ago, the analysis has become the most frequently referenced report on renewable energy business and policy, serving a wide range of audiences from investors and government decision makers to students, project developers, researchers, and industrial manufacturers. It provides testimony of the undeterred growth of electricity, heat, and fuel production capacities from renewable energy sources, including solar PV, wind power, solar hot water/heating, biofuels, hydropower, and geothermal.
Read this report from the World Watch Institute here.
Assessing the effects of ICT in education
Despite the fact that education systems have been heavily investing in technology since the early 1980s, international indicators on technology uptake and use in education are missing. This book aims to provide a basis for the design of frameworks, the identification of indicators and existing data sources, as well as gaps in areas needing further research.
The contributions stem from an international expert meeting in April 2009 organised by the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning, in co-operation with OECD (CERI), on benchmarking technology use and effects in education. The contributions clearly demonstrate the need to develop a consensus around approaches, indicators and methodologies.
Read this EU/OECD report here.
The contributions stem from an international expert meeting in April 2009 organised by the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning, in co-operation with OECD (CERI), on benchmarking technology use and effects in education. The contributions clearly demonstrate the need to develop a consensus around approaches, indicators and methodologies.
Read this EU/OECD report here.
De geografie van de sociale zekerheid in België
Lees de volledige publicatie van het Centrum Herman DeLeeck van de UA hier.
The pursuit of happiness
Australians are among the most satisfied people in the world with almost 90 per cent very satisfied or satisfied with their lives, despite having to work harder to juggle family, job and financial pressures, according to the latest AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report.
Australia ranks equal third with the United States and Sweden in overall life satisfaction among OECD countries, with an average score of 7.9 out of 10, beaten only by Ireland, Norway and Denmark (equal first) and Finland and Canada (equal second).
The AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report: The pursuit of happiness explores life satisfaction trends in Australia, examining how different aspects of people's lives impact on happiness.
Australia ranks equal third with the United States and Sweden in overall life satisfaction among OECD countries, with an average score of 7.9 out of 10, beaten only by Ireland, Norway and Denmark (equal first) and Finland and Canada (equal second).
The AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report: The pursuit of happiness explores life satisfaction trends in Australia, examining how different aspects of people's lives impact on happiness.
Read this AMP report here.
Obama's Policies Seen as Better than Bush's for Improving the Economy
While most Americans disapprove of Barack Obama’s handling of the economy, far more think his administration’s policies – rather than those of the Bush administration – would do more to improve economic conditions over the next few years. As Congress gears up for debate over the tax cuts passed when Bush was president, the public is divided, with roughly equal numbers in favor of keeping all of Bush’s tax cuts, repealing only those for wealthy Americans, or scrapping them entirely. Read the results of the Pew Research poll here.
What do we know about the causes of the crisis?
The global crisis has left many calling for early warning systems to prompt authorities into action before it’s too late. This column argues that such a system is restricted by our understanding of what caused the crisis in the first place. Indeed, it shows that popular explanations for the current crisis have little to no ability to predict past crises. Read the complete article on EUVOX here.
Inégalité de traitement entre travailleurs licenciés
Dans leur malheur, les travailleurs licenciés en masse perçoivent souvent “une enveloppe” en plus de la réparation classique. Par contre, un travailleur – au même profil – licencié d’une PME ne percevra qu’un seul dédomagement.
Lisez l'article dans LLB ici.
Entreprendre est à nouveau à la mode en Flandre
La plupart des nouveaux entrepreneurs sont situés dans la province d'Anvers, suivie par la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale et la Flandre orientale.
Lisez l'article dans LLB ici.
vrijdag 30 juli 2010
Making Sense of the Climate Impasse
Jeffrey D. Sachs: " The Wall Street Journal has run an aggressive editorial campaign against climate science for decades. The individuals involved in this campaign are not only scientifically uninformed, but show absolutely no interest in becoming better informed." Read his column on Project Syndicate here.
Britain Plans to Scrap Mandatory Retirement Age in 2011
The British government on Thursday proposed to scrap a much-criticized rule that allows employers to require workers to retire when they turn 65. Read the complete article in The NYTimes here.
Schumpeter: A post-crisis case study
The new dean of Harvard Business School promises “radical innovation”. Read the complete article in The Economist here.
More stress ahead
It will take more than stress tests to resolve European banks’ funding problems. Read the complete article in The Economist here.
Europa steunt Vlaamse topopleidingen
"Dit jaar gaat Vlaanderen lopen met een kwart van alle Erasmus Mundus erkenningen". Lees het volledige artikel in De Standaard hier.
Konijnenpooteconomie
We zijn bijna allemaal staatskapitalisten nu. In het Westen staan we weliswaar nog ver van het Chinese staatskapitalisme, maar ook hier zullen de overheden en centrale bankiers nog jaren een hoofdrol spelen in de economie. Lees het volledige opiniestuk van Daan Killemaes in Trends hier.
Variations de la fécondité dans les pays développés: disparités et influences des politiques d'aide aux familles
Les politiques d’aide aux familles semblent avoir un impact avéré mais d’ampleur limitée sur les taux de fécondité : les aides financières, conditionnées ou non au statut au regard de l’emploi, ont un effet évident sur le calendrier des naissances (mais leur effet sur la fécondité finale est plus incertain) ; les dispositifs favorables à la conciliation emploi-famille apparaissent, quant à eux, particulièrement importants dans le choix d’avoir ou non des enfants. Les aides renforcent, cependant, souvent les différences de comportement entre les classes sociales. Cependant, l’effet des aides mis ainsi en évidence est certainement sous-estimé en raison de la difficulté à saisir leurs effets plus ou moins directs à long terme.
Lisez ce rapport sur le site des Caisses d'Allocations Familliales en France ici.
De geografie van de sociale zekerheid in België
Stelsels van sociale zekerheid genereren herverdelingen van inkomens tussen regionale entiteiten. De systemen van interpersoonlijke herverdeling geven aanleiding tot geldstromen tussen de verschillende deelgebieden van een land in de mate dat sociale risico’s ongelijk verdeeld zijn over de regio’s en/of dat de capaciteit om bij te dragen aan de stelsels van sociale zekerheid regionaal verschilt en/of dat er verschillen zijn in de uitvoeringswijze van de stelsels van de sociale zekerheid en/of in de inhoud van het flankerende beleid (bv. arbeidsbemiddeling, onderwijs, etc.). In België wordt daarbij doorgaans gekeken naar de transferten tussen de politiek relevante deelentiteiten, Vlaanderen en Wallonië. In dit CSB-Bericht schetsen Bea Cantillon, Seppe De Blust en Aaron Van den Heede van het Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid Herman Deleeck aan de Universiteit Antwerpen de geografische structuur van de inter-persoonlijke transfers door de verdeling van sociale zekerheidsbijdragen en uitkeringen op gemeentelijk niveau in kaart te brengen.
Lees dit rapport van het Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid Herman Deleeck hier.
Les longues négociations « coûtent » à la sécurité sociale
La longueur des négociations pour la formation d’un gouvernement fédéral pourrait provoquer un déficit de trésorerie au sein de l’ONSS. La sécurité sociale doit trouver d’urgence un milliard.
Lisez cet article dans Le Soir ici.
Encore deux semaines de préformation
Di Rupo fera aujourd’hui son deuxième rapport intermédiaire chez le Roi. Les négociateurs sont à la limite du blocage sur l’institutionnel.
Lisez l'article dans LLB ici.
Public debt and growth
This paper explores the impact of high public debt on long-run economic growth. The analysis, based on a panel of advanced and emerging economies over almost four decades, takes into account a broad range of determinants of growth as well as various estimation issues including reverse causality and endogeneity. In addition, threshold effects, nonlinearities, and differences between advanced and emerging market economies are examined. The empirical results suggest an inverse relationship between initial debt and subsequent growth, controlling for other determinants of growth: on average, a 10 percentage point increase in the initial debt-to-GDP ratio is associated with a slowdown in annual real per capita GDP growth of around 0.2 percentage points per year, with the impact being somewhat smaller in advanced economies. There is some evidence of nonlinearity with higher levels of initial debt having a proportionately larger negative effect on subsequent growth. Analysis of the components of growth suggests that the adverse effect largely reflects a slowdown in labor productivity growth mainly due to reduced investment and slower growth of capital stock.
Read this IMF Working Paper here.
Read this IMF Working Paper here.
donderdag 29 juli 2010
The Dragon's Embrace: China's Soft Power Is a Threat to the West
China may have no intentions of using its growing military might, but that is of little comfort for Western countries. From the World Trade Organization to the United Nations, Beijing is happy to use its soft power to get what it wants -- and it is wrong-footing the West at every turn. Read the complete article on Der Spiegel International here.
Open-Source Pharmaceuticals?
"Few companies have demonstrated that they are prepared to commit the time, effort, and resources to embrace a radically different way of operating. Yet the tangible and intangible benefits of adopting new forms of collaboration – reducing the cost of failure, leveraging unused IP and external funding mechanisms, increasing access to networks of talent, and establishing greater trust among patients and other stakeholders – could be extensive. Moreover, these benefits would be realized not only by pharmaceutical companies, but also by academics and other collaborators." Read the opinion piece of Jackie Hunter, CEO of Pharmivation and former Head of Science Environment Development at GlaxoSmithkline, on Project Syndicate here.
The world-wide famine for jobs…
There was zero net job creation in the first decade of the new millenium. Read Geert Noels' blogpost on Econoshock here.
Les obstacles à la démocratisation arabe
Les compromis entre Occident et régimes arabes autoritaires bloquent toutes formes de démocratisation. Face à cette alliance contre-nature, l’islam radical apparaît comme une force “salvatrice”. Lisez l'article d'opinion de Khaled Hroub, directeur à l'université de Cambridge du projet "Arab1", dans LLB ici.
Une Belgique éclatée ne pourrait rembourser sa dette publique
En cas d’éclatement, la Belgique pourrait ne plus pouvoir rembourser sa dette d’ici fin 2012, selon le bureau de gestion britannique Bedlam Asset Management dont l’analyse circule dans les milieux financiers sous le nom « farewell Flanonia ? ».
Lisez l'article dans Le Soir ici.
Consultez la publication de Bedlam Asset Management ici.
Embellie de 40 millions
La Région bruxelloise profite d’un sursaut du marché immobilier. Les recettes en droits d’enregistrement au niveau de 2005.
Lisez l'article dans LLB ici.
woensdag 28 juli 2010
The Economics of Gypsies
Gypsies are not only hot in the Belgian media. Steven Levitt wrote this on the Freakonomics blog:
"My friend Pete Leeson is one of the most original and creative economists I know. First, he wrote about pirate economics (he was even kind enough to write three guest posts on the Freakonomics blog).
"My friend Pete Leeson is one of the most original and creative economists I know. First, he wrote about pirate economics (he was even kind enough to write three guest posts on the Freakonomics blog).
Then he tackled “ordeals” –- the medieval method of trial in which one’s guilt was assessed by whether an arm that was plunged into boiling water got burned. His conclusion: it was not a miracle when the accused emerged unscathed from the boiling water treatment. As long as everyone believed that the boiling water would reveal guilt, it made more sense to confess than to have one’s arm get boiled and then be punished for the crime on top of that. So the only people who were willing to go through the ordeal were those who were falsely accused. Consequently, it appears that the people who carried out the ordeals didn’t really boil the water (it’s not clear whether they did this on purpose or accidentally –- I suspect on purpose).
Now, he has moved on to gypsies. Apparently, gypsies believe in all sorts of strange things, like that the lower half of the human body is polluted and non-gypsies are spiritually toxic. These bizarre beliefs, he argues, substitute for traditional institutions of law and order. Like all of Leeson’s best work, when I start reading it I don’t really believe it, but by the end I’m not only convinced, I feel like running out and telling everyone I know about it."
Un-Freakonomics
"Roth uses the mathematical tools of game theory to find fixes for big, broken systems. Over the last 20 years he has pioneered a branch of economics known as market design. Among Roth's accomplishments: designing networks for kidney donations and creating elegant systems that enable huge urban school districts to optimally place multitudes of students among hundreds of schools." Read the complete article on Forbes here.
'Open Vld vervalste begroting'
Open Vld heeft de begroting vervalst." Tot die conclusie komt John Crombez, de begrotingsspecialist van de sp.a, nu uit een rapport van het monitoringcomité is gebleken dat het begrotingstekort dit jaar oploopt tot 5,2 procent en volgend jaar tot 5,6 procent in plaats van een tekort van respectievelijk 4,8 en 4,1 procent. Dat schrijft De Tijd woensdag. Lees het volledige artikel in De Standaard hier.
What is the growth potential of green innovation? An assessment of EU climate policy options
Read this EC Economic Paper here.
Zijn onze banken echt stressbestendig?
KOEN SCHOORS is blij dat de Europese banken doorgelicht worden, maar stelt zich vragen bij de criteria. We weten immers nog altijd niet of onze banken een liquiditeitscrisis kunnen doorstaan, want daarop zijn ze niet getest. Lees het volledige opiniestuk in De Standaard hier.
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