Publications


March 1, 2023

Predicting Firm Exits with Machine Learning: Implications for Selection into COVID-19 Support and Productivity Growth

In this paper, we use machine learning techniques to predict whether a company would have left the market in a world without corona. These predictions show that unhealthy companies applied for support less often than healthy companies. But we also show that the COVID-19 support has prevented most exits among unhealthy companies. This indicates that the corona support measures have had a negative impact on productivity growth.

Corona
December 13, 2022

Getting off to a flying start? The effects of an early-career international mobility grant on scientific performance

Researchers who receive the Rubicon grant perform the same as comparable non-awarded applicants on a number of academic outcomes, such as the number of scientific publications and the citation score.

University
November 7, 2022

Wealth, gifts, and estate planning at the end of life

We show that gifts made to heirs before death are substantial and highly responsive to taxation. Therefore, characterising them and understanding their determinants is crucial for tax design. We use high-quality, intergenerationally-linked data on wealth, gifts, and medical expenses from the Netherlands.

The transfer of a piggy bank
October 4, 2022

Forecasting World Trade Using Big Data and Machine Learning Techniques

We compare machine learning techniques to a large Bayesian VAR for nowcasting and forecasting world merchandise trade. We focus on how the predictive performance of the machine learning models changes when they have...

September 29, 2022

Temporal Patterns in Economics Research

We study the duration of topics in economics research by looking at how much time passes between publication of textually similar papers....

May 30, 2022

Do people value environmental goods? Evidence from the Netherlands

We find strong associations between house prices and environmental factors that are directly noticeable. This mainly concerns noise pollution and the amount of greenery and water in close proximity to a house....

No title
May 18, 2022

Can skill differences explain the gap in the track recommendation by socio-economic status?

Tracking early in the school career can influence a student's further educational path significantly. We study the track advice at the end of primary school in the Netherlands, where teachers give a track advice based on a student's previous performance and their impression of the student's ability.

children at school
March 30, 2022

Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling

The rising incidence of alternative work arrangements raises questions about worker outcomes in non-standard labor contracts. However, causal evidence on the effects of flexible contracts on labor market outcomes of...

March 29, 2022

Labor Supply Effects of Survivor Insurance: Evidence from Restricted Access to Survivor Benefits in the Netherlands

The ANW reform of 1996 in the Netherlands reduced the eligibility to survivor benefits for cohorts born after 1950. We find an increase in personal income (+23%) and labor force participation (+16%) for the widowers...

March 25, 2022

Inequality and Redistribution in the Netherlands

How high is income inequality in the Netherlands? How progressive are taxes and how much income does government spending redistribute? This study presents the most exhaustive responses for the Netherlands to these...