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The scientific field of impact assessment encompasses various 'traditions', each reflecting a set of particular policy objectives. This paper analyses two types of impact assessment. Regulatory impact analysis focuses on better regulation and competitiveness, while sustainability assessment fosters a holistic approach centred on the values of sustainable development. Through an analysis of the political discourses at the level of the European Union and at the sub-national level of the Flemish Region of Belgium, elements of convergence between the better regulation and sustainable development discourse are identified. The paper analyses how integrated impact assessment can be an integrative tool that allows to merge both discourses and to implement them in day-to-day decision-making. The potential of the existing Flemish regulatory impact analysis framework to be the starting point of an integrated assessment scheme for sustainable development is advocated and motivated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the propensity to attain a Ph.D. degree at the five largest universities in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. It provides insight into the rate at which junior scholars appointed at the universities involved attained their Ph.D.-degree, and the duration of the doctoral training period. Cox’s regression model was applied to statistically analyse the influence of a number of ‘demographic’ and ‘merit’ variables, and variables related to funding source and type of appointment of the junior scholarly staff. Large differences in Ph.D. durations and attainment rates were found across funding sources, research disciplines and types of appointments. The policy background and implications are discussed briefly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the construction of a rent index for Flanders, Belgium. This annual index, referred to as the huurprijsindex (rent index), is designed to detect changes in rents for the overall stock of rental homes. We use the matched model methodology based upon repeat tenancy agreements, analogous to Case and Shiller's geometric repeat sales model, to estimate the rent index. We use recoded data on the tenancy agreements of nearly five hundred thousand rental homes; more than 30,000 of these represent repeat agreements between 1990 and 2010. The accuracy of the index is determined using the 95 % confidence interval. Given our target (a geometric mean index value) and the characteristics of the dataset (large but without property characteristics) our repeat tenancy agreements method seems to be adequate for calculating a rent index for Flanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]