Economic Survey - Netherlands 2004

The OECD assessment and recommendations on the main economic challenges faced by the Netherlands are available by clicking on each chapter heading below.

• Executive Summary
  
• Economic developments and policy challenges
  This chapter identifies the main policy challenges that arise from recent and longer-term economic developments.
  
• Reforms to housing and pension funds to increase economic efficiency and reduce business cycle fluctuations
  Reforms in housing policies and pension fund regulation (as planned) could increase economic efficiency and reduce volatility.

Of special interest: Housing policies

• Fiscal Policy
  Consolidation packages are necessary to move public finances back to a sustainable path by 2007 and that they should be fully implemented. Further consolidation efforts may be needed thereafter.
  
• Increasing labour force participation
  This chapter analyses reforms that would reduce the inflow into the disability benefit system and the incentives to retire early. It also recommends measures to increase work incentives for the unemployed and hours worked by women and stresses the need to reduce EPL.

Of special interest: Reform of the sickness and disability benefit schemes

• Product market competition and economic performance
  Competition in product markets, which is vital for raising productivity growth, can still be enhanced, notably by eliminating unwarranted anti-competitive practices in the liberal professions and removing barriers to competition in the network industries.
  
  Read also ECO Working Paper 422: Product market competition and economic performance in the Netherlands

• Policies to enhance innovation and productivity growth
  This chapter analyses three further determinants of productivity growth: the innovation system, the tertiary and vocational education system and the new rules of corporate governance, and gives policy recommendations.
  
  
• Sustainable development in the Netherlands
  There is scope for improvement in reaching sustainable development objectives in a cost-effective way, notably in the areas of energy taxation and natural gas extraction.

A printer-friendly Policy Brief   (pdf format) may also be downloaded.  The Policy Brief contains the executive summary and the OECD assessment and recommendations, but does not include all of the charts available from the above pages.
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The full edition of the OECD Economic Survey for the Netherlands is available from:

• SourceOECD for subscribing institutions and many libraries
• Government officials with OLISnet accounts
• OECD Online Bookshop for non subscribers
• Password-protected web site for accredited journalists