The number of passengers increases rapidly at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. To keep up with this growth, the airport invests 36 million euro in a temporary departure hall. Low cost carriers, such as Ryanair and Easyjet, are largely responsible for this growth. Does the growth of low cost carriers cause more competition between airlines? As part…

A city is a thriving organism composed of high densities of people, mostly strangers, which live and interact in a complex series of direct and indirect exchanges. In the past urban policies often aimed to develop monofunctional neighbourhoods, where people and different types of jobs (e.g. manufacturing, business services and retail) were separated. However, in…

The last two decades have witnessed an extraordinary expansion in global mining activity, an increasing share of which was concentrated in emerging markets. The world’s largest mines can nowadays be found in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This mining boom has reinvigorated the debate about the impact of mining on economic activity and welfare in…

Ethnic diversity in the Netherlands is increasing. Urban areas have traditionally been the most diverse. Growing ethnic diversity at the national and regional level does, however, not necessarily translate into multicultural neighbourhoods in cities. At the neighbourhood level, concentration of specific ethnic groups seems to be the more dominant trend. This evokes the question whether…

The quality of social housing leaves much to be desired, as a recent report by the NOS points out. There are plans to heavily invest in renovation of social housing. From 2007 to 2012, government and housing associations already invested more than 1 billion – in addition to the regular investments – in the 83 poorest…

Biofuels help reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. In their attempts to meet agreements on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, governments subsidize farmers to grow bioenergy crops. However, current ways of subsidizing farmers in the EU are not optimal. Conventional crops receive large amounts of funds, while upcoming technologies such as biofuel production receive relatively little…

We all want to make the world a better place. Hence governments aim to help consumers to buy cars with lower CO2 emissions. One way of doing this is by reducing taxes on cars. Ideally, such a tax is directly linked to the actual CO2 emissions of the car because then the polluter pays for…

Modern cities enjoy many benefits connected to dense population and proximity of firms, but also face negative effects of agglomeration. In an urban context, external effects of traffic like noise and air pollution, or traffic congestion are some of the most significant issues for policy makers. Inefficiencies arising from congested roads have sparked economic research…