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There has been increasing interest and debate in recent years on the instituted nature of economic processes in general and the related ideas of the market, in particular the competitive process. This debate lies at the interface between two largely independent disciplines, economics and sociology, and reflects an attempt to bring the two fields of discourse more closely together. This book explores this interface in a number of ways, looking at the competitive process and market relations from a number of different perspectives. It includes a wide range of contributors, most of whom are leading writers and thinkers in the field. The book considers the social role of economic institutions in society and examines the various meanings embedded in the word 'markets', as well as developing arguments on the nature of competition as an instituted economic process, rather than as competition being something that disturbs norms or institutions. It goes on to consider the deeper and more involved connection between markets and cognition, explaining how institutions can ease cognitive difficulties, and the effect of culture on markets and competition is also fully studied. This book will be of vital use to students and academics working in the fields of economics, sociology and business studies. It sketches the agenda for future research about markets and the competitive process

The first aim of Transitions to Adulthood in Europe is to describe the similarities and differences in the timing and kind of transition among the post-war cohorts in Austria, Britain, Flanders (Belgium), France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Spain. A comparative description allows consideration of whether trends across Europe are converging or whether inter-country differences persist. A second aim of this volume is to bring together the results of individual-level studies from these ten European countries, analysing the impact of selected determinants on the transition to adulthood. The focus in particular is on those factors that gave rise to the Second Demographic Transition. Almost all studies make use of the Fertility and Family Survey data, a survey co-ordinated in the 1990s by the Population Activities Unit of the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations. Comparing the results of these country-specific analyses sheds an intriguing light on the various ways in which these determinants operate in different economic and cultural contexts

The aim of Diversity in Family Formation is to examine changes in the start of the family formation process. Rather than giving a rough overview of demographic changes in many countries, a comparison of differences in changes in family formation and fertility behaviour between Belgium and The Netherlands is interesting for various reasons. First, even though the economic and cultural differences between these countries are relatively small there is one important difference: Belgium is predominantly Catholic, whereas The Netherlands has about equal proportions of Catholics and Protestants. Second, if the Second Demographic Transition implies that there is one common pattern of change in different European countries and that differences across countries are due to the fact that countries are in a different stage of the transition process, and if it is assumed that the transition process started earlier in Protestant countries than in Catholic countries, one would expect The Netherlands to be in a further stage of the transition process than Belgium. Thus an in-depth comparison of changes in family formation and fertility behaviour between both countries may give us more insight in the question of whether there is one common transition process. The comparison of fertility and family survey-data in both countries brings us to the core question of whether there is one common explanation for differences between countries in various types of fertility and family behaviour under consideration, namely fertility regulation, the choice of living arrangement after leaving the parental home, and the labour force participation of mothers

1. Introduction -- 2. A Dutch pioneer of demographic forecasting The story of G.A.H. Wiebols (1895–1960) -- 3. The emergence of demographic forecasting in Europe -- 4. The international struggle for paradigm dominance -- 5. Competing methodologies in the Netherlands -- 6. Forecasting future housing need in the Netherlands -- 7. The search for practical applications in Dutch urban and regional forecasting -- 8. The implications of the new paradigm -- 9. Conclusions -- References -- Archives -- Index of items -- Index of names -- NIDI CBGS Publications.

A critical appraisal of regionalism as a key strategy in Africa's development explaining the failures thus far of attempts at regional integration on the continent. This is the first text to highlight the main features of the new post-1990 regional initiatives such as the all-embracing African Economic Community and World Bank, IMF, African Development Bank, EC and French initiatives and the challenges to Africa from trading blocs elsewhere in the post-Uruguay Round environment

Many industrialized countries are facing large problems with their public pension systems in the 21st century. An unfavourable age distribution, with lower population shares in working ages and increasing shares and numbers of elderly persons in the future will lead, under current pension systems, to a drop in contributions and at the same time to sharply rising amounts of benefits paid. This book analyzes the impact of dynamics in age structure and marital status composition on future public pension expenditures in twelve industrialized countries. It shows that there is no demographic response to population ageing at the horizon 2030. Neither an increase in fertility nor an inflow of migrants can rejuvenate national populations, unless fertility and/or migration reach unrealistically high levels. Therefore, the overall conclusion of this book is that demographic variables are of limited help to relieve the burden of future public pension expenditures. Substantial reductions of the public pension burden have to be sought in socioeconomic measures, and not in adjusting demographic conditions. The book includes various demographic and pension scenarios for pension costs in the coming decades for Austria, Canada, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. Not only old age pensions, but also disability and survivor pensions have been investigated. Variant projections were calculated for changes in demographic, labour force, and pension system variables. In addition, separate case studies for three countries deal with: a pension system in Austria in which benefits depend on the number children ever born; the impact of household dynamics on social security in the Netherlands, not just marriage and marriage dissolution; and with the consequences of economic growth for public pensions in Sweden

This volume includes seven articles reflecting a selection of current research issues in the Low Countries. With permission of the Dutch and Belgian Governments the national reports submitted to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo) are also included in this volume. They provide up to date information on the official views at present of the Dutch and Belgian Governments on demographic trends and population policy issues