Publications

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. →

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. →

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. Exploiting variation in the timing of death, we find that the wealthiest half of singles (including widows) with children transfer over 10% of their wealth to their children in anticipation of death. Giving is highly sensitive to how heavily gifts are taxed, relative to bequests. →

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... →

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

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.... →

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. →

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... →

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... →

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... →