We are living on a finite planet. Mankind is overstepping planetary boundaries, however. In 2021, worldwide consumption has exceeded the yearly bio-capacity of the Earth (what we call the overshoot day) on the 29th of July. For industrialised countries, the situation is far worse: In 2022, Belgium reached that overshoot day on the 26th of March. In the face of these urgent challenges of sustainable resource use, there is wide agreement on the need for a transition, a fundamental societal shif...

Standards play an important role within society, shaping many transactions between consumers and companies, citizens and governments, as well as customer/supplier relationships in the broadest sense. This book investigates the economic and strategic importance of standards in a small, strongly globalised economy. The case of Belgium is developed from both a macro-economic and micro-economic perspective.

Based on an econometric model, the macro-economic part quantifies the impact of standards ...

Maatschappelijke problemen als hardnekkige werkloosheid, kansenongelijkheid en grote beloningsverschillen worden doorgaans toegeschreven aan een niet goed functionerende arbeidsmarkt. De gangbare reactie is dat we de arbeidsmarkt beter moeten laten werken. Een goed functionerende arbeidsmarkt, zoals die in de economische leerboeken wordt beschreven, is echter een mythe. In werkelijkheid kan de arbeidsmarkt nooit werken als de oliemarkt, de bloemenmarkt of de smartphonemarkt. Arbeid is geen ha...