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The central question in this paper is whether a market economy can theoretically and empirically deal with sustainability. A system analysis of the current neoclassical theory shows that the system components (goal function, interaction mechanisms, actors and outcomes) are predominantly defined in terms of economic growth and facilitated by market exchange. This fosters (over)production and consumption of private goods, crowding out public goods and preservation of the commons. The one size fits all 'economic mechanism design' cannot deliver social outcomes regarding sustainability. The explicit recognition that an economy has different domains (ecological, social, economic) broadens the options for incorporating sustainability within the economic system. This richer framework allows us to analyse the economic problem at hand: an efficient economic system in an inclusive society within biophysical boundaries. We show that the alternative for market economics does not only have to be government intervention but can also include private forms of collective decision-making., (© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

This paper analyzes the impact of automatic wage indexation on employment. To boost competitiveness and increase employment, Belgium suspended its automatic wage indexation system in 2015. This resulted in a 2% fall in real wages for all workers. In the absence of a suitable control group, we use machine learning for the counterfactual analysis. We artificially construct the control group for a difference-in-difference analysis based on the pre-treatment evolution of treated firms. We find a positive impact on employment of 1.2%, which corresponds to a labor demand elasticity of - 0.6. This effect is more pronounced for manufacturing firms, where the elasticity reaches - 1. These results show that a suspension of the automatic wage indexation mechanism can be effective in preserving employment., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThis study was supported by the Methusalem research program established by the Flemish government. All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

We apply the synthetic control method to a case study of the Dutch State Treasury Agency's funding policy. We study empirically what effect a change in funding strategy by the Dutch treasury had on market conditions. First, our results suggest that introducing more uncertainty to the funding policy, by means of a target range for capital market issuances, does not lead to a higher risk premium on Dutch government debt. Second, our paper shows that the synthetic control method, or the related constrained regression, is more suitable than a difference-in-differences method for this particular case study. The synthetic control method and constrained regression only include control units that are similar to the Netherlands. The difference-in-differences estimator includes all control countries, even ones that are not similar to the Netherlands. The difference-in-differences estimates incorrectly suggest that introducing more uncertainty in the funding policy leads to a higher risk premium. This shows that synthetic control and constrained regression are in some cases more suitable than a standard difference-in-differences. Furthermore, the synthetic control and constrained regression results hold when time and unit placebo tests are applied, whereas difference-in-differences results are not robust for this case study., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestNo conflicts of interest., (© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

Trust in pension providers by participants is essential because pension providers try to fulfill their pension promises in a fundamentally uncertain world. Reforms and crises are therefore the ultimate testing ground for pension trust. In this paper we estimate with repeated cross-sectional survey data how trust and distrust in Dutch pension funds and the government have evolved over the period 2004-2021 and what the impact of financial stability on trust in these two institutions has been. Financial stability of pension funds, measured by their funding ratio, is shown to affect trust positively, but it does not decrease distrust significantly. Based on the estimation results, achieving a situation where the majority of the adult population trusts pension funds is likely to be attained at funding ratios of 115 or higher. Financial stability of government (measured by government debt/GDP ratio) does not affect either trust or distrust levels. Underlying drivers of distrust and trust such as personal characteristics are also notable: self-employed are more prone to distrust pension funds than employees. Women are more than men likely to take a neutral position., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

This paper aims to analyze the determinants of cash usage in a selection of European Union (EU) countries over the 2003-2016 period, based on a set of technological, socioeconomic, and socio-cultural indicators and cost components. Our results reveal the existence of both common and region-specific determinants for the EU advanced and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In both groups cash usage is determined by payment system characteristics. Additionally, in the EU advanced countries cash usage can also be explained by the level of economic development and income inequalities and proliferation of Internet. In contrast, cash usage in CEE countries is negatively associated with consumer confidence and is inversely related to the technological progress, expressed in terms of mobile users., (© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021.)

In the traditional retirement scenario, individuals work full-time or part-time until a given age, and then stop working abruptly. From the individual's point of view, it seems more attractive to have a smooth transition, with gradual retirement. In Sweden and other European countries, specific gradual retirement programs have been created in the past 20 years, first in combination with early retirement programs and later to increase labour market participation of older workers. This paper surveys the existing literature on gradual retirement in the US and Europe and analyzes the relevance of gradual retirement in the Netherlands as a tool to keep people employed longer.