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The article discusses the papers on the association between media and economics, that were delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Royal Netherlands Economic Association in 2006. A research on the possible failures in media markets provides characteristics of information goods that can cause media markets to fail. Another contribution looks at how public broadcasters can offer high-quality products designed to a small niche market while at the same time catering to a large audience to generate resources.

In continuous interaction with their audience, institutions for providing pop music became established from the 1960s onwards. These included, pop music radio, disc jockeys (DJ) and commercial charts. Pop music's "conquest" of the Netherlands was peculiar in comparison to other countries, including adjacent ones. This paper analyzes the advent of pop music in the context of the institutional sclerosis of Dutch radio and Dutch music press in particular, in terms of the theoretical framework of institutional economics. It argues that the slow spread of pop music in the Netherlands, compared with other countries, was linked to the conflict between the sociocultural values of the established public broadcasters and those of the emerging pop music industry.

ABSTRACT In contrast to findings in other countries, and surprisingly in view of the literature, high-tech economic activity in the Netherlands is not spread geographically according to either relevant labour market characteristics or to localised agglomeration economies. Instead, statistical analysis shows that the Netherlands is an urban field, and that the knowledge infrastructure is the only variable that can offer an explanation of the high-tech presence throughout the country. By analysing similar relationships for younger firms, we are able to make quite a strong case about causation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we analyze recent dynamics of the Dutch health care sector, a hybrid system of public, private and professional elements, in terms of clashing discourses. Although these elements are intricately interwoven, this does not mean that the system is stable. Most notably, since the eighties the introduction of more market elements in the health care system has been widely debated. Hospitals introduced different methods commonly used in businesses, for instance. The position of managers in the institutions of health care has become more central. A discourse analysis shows the concomitant patterns of institutional change in the health care sector. We distinguish four different discourses concerning health care: economic, political, medical-professional and caring discourses. These different discourses give rise to, for example, different views of good care, the character and position of the patient, and leadership in health care organizations--views that sometimes clash intensely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]