Keynesian Policy by Default: How Political Gridlock Leads the Dutch Government to Pay Off its Debts

Makineia, a.d. VII Id. Jul. MMDCCLXX A.U.B., As per the 19th of July, more than four months after the parliamentary elections, Dutch political parties have not yet formed a new government, leaving the 'demissionary' second Rutte cabinet as a caretaker government. Seeing the close relation between executive and legislature in the Dutch parliamentary system -...

‘Publish or Perish’ and the Small Sample-Size Problem

Science has progressed much by using the experimental method, because it allows us to control many of the important variables including they key independent variable, and it allows us to randomly assign subjects to the treatment or control group, so we can control for confounding variables. I will give a short intro to the experimental...

Why Do Scientists Engage in Fraud, and What Can We Do About It?

In the last few years many cases of scientific fraud have been uncovered. Fraud is defined as: “Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain” by the Oxford Dictionary. In the case of scientific papers several forms of fraud are imaginable, such as deliberately citing other sources wrongly in the theory...

Tyranny of the Majority: Erdogan’s Capital Sentence of Democracy

Leiden, prid. Non. Apr. MMDCCLXX A.U.C., As the polls show, Erdogan had his way, and Turkey has taken another step towards autocracy. Although much has been said about autocratization in Turkey, and the role the constitutional amendments have in this process (an excellent summary of the constitutional amendments, by Jochanan Mussel, can be found here),...

Taxation Beats Regulation for Amsterdam’s Tourist Dilemma

Pigouvian taxes beat regulation for Amsterdam's tourist dilemma. Read all about it at: http://www.iminternational.nl/2017/04/04/taxation-beats-regulation-for-amsterdams-tourist-dilemma/

The Irony of Brexit: How Brexit is Exacerbating the Democratic Deficit

Leiden, Id. Mar. MMDCCLXX A.U.C., As I discussed in earlier posts the European Union suffers from a democratic deficit. The main reason for this is that governments negotiate directly with each other and the European Commission, while European Parliament is relatively weak compared to the national governments and the European Commission, and national parliaments do not...

Election Talk: Geert Wilders

Diverging from his usual policy, right-wing member of parliament Geert Wilders had an interview on Dutch television. The self-proclaimed right-wing broadcasting service Wij Nederland (We Netherlands, a.k.a. WNL), a broadcasting service for ‘normal, hard working and entrepreneurial’ Dutch citizens which aims to make Dutch television more representative of Dutch society, managed to get Geert Wilders...

Why Nations Fail and How Poor Countries Develop Rich Countries

Leiden, Non. Ian. MMDCCLXX A.U.C., Recently the Guardian published about the massive flow of capital from less economically developed countries (LEDCs) to more economically developed countries (MEDCs), based on a report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI). This justifiably got a lot of attention, as it is  ironic, if not down right perverted, that capital is flowing from...

Mr. Farage, go back to your country!

Yesterday Mr. Farage declared his intention to dissolve the European Union, now that he has successfully taken the UK out of the EU. Apparently Mr. Farage has appropriated the right to interfere in European domestic politic, a right he lost when the United Kingdom, at his instigation, decided to leave the EU. Seeing the UK is in...