After a deep recession during the early eighties of the last century, the Dutch economy has developed quite well, also in comparison with the European neighbouring states. This is caused by a package of radical social reforms. The present column illustrates this development with the help of economic indicators, such as the economic growth, labour participation, the costs of insurance for the disabled, the participation of older men, the labour productivity, and the investment quote .... Read more
22-04-2021: Models of privatization
Author: E.A. Bakkum
A previous column has analyzed how public goods can be supplied by private enterprises. There the market regulation was also discussed. The present column uses several of these insights in a model. The first model addresses the political phases of privatizations. The second model shows, how a private enterprise can be controled by means of subsidies. The third model discusses the regulation of a natural monopoly by means of its price structure .... Read more
15-04-2021: Privatizations
Author: E.A. Bakkum
In several previous columns attention has been paid to the positive incentives, which derive from private property. Therefore it is logical to now study the effects of privatizations in the public sector. The new institutional economics offers useful insights, which are summarized here. Also, ways of market regulation are presented. Several experiences with free markets are described. Finally, the radical criticism of E. Tonkens and the PvdA commision Van Thijn are discussed .... Read more
20-03-2021: Collective ownership of the means of production (2)
Author: E.A. Bakkum
It turns out that property rights of the production factors affect the incentives to produce. This column analyzes the incentives of the direction in the non-profit organization, the state bureaucracy, and the state enterprise. Also the social ownership in the Leninist paradigm is studied again. The Leninist principles are compared with those of the modern institutionalism. It turns out that in all these cases group morals are a decisive factor .... Read more
22-02-2021: The radical centre in Germany
Author: E.A. Bakkum
Twenty years ago the social-democratic parties had successes with the policy of the radical centre. The present column analyzes the experiences of the German SPD. The SPD-ideologist Thomas Meyer propagates a social democracy, which defends the positive fundamental rights. Attention is paid to both the view of the social-democratic main current, and the left wing within the SPD (Eppler and Nahles). The OECD data files are used for studying the policy effects of the radical centre .... Read more