Search

This article analyzes the dialectic of fast and slow mobilities as a continuous tension, since the mid-twentieth century, characterized by three evolutions of the functional, phenomenological, and social dimensions of mobility infrastructure and practices in Brussels, Belgium. It is based on the content analysis of diverse "embodiments" of social imaginaries: mobility infrastructures, narratives and sensory-motor behaviors, and images, movies, and photographs. It casts light on the great triple evolution of (1) the scale of the designed city; (2) the limits between spaces devoted to speed, slowness, and overlaps; and (3) the promoted aesthetics in terms of atmospheres and urban experience. These developments strongly relate to the changing meaning of slow and fast mobilities and to a broader change in the societal relationship to space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested a causal relationship between international public relations (PR) expenditure and its economic outcome at the country level by using a time-series analysis. International PR expenditures of four client countries (Japan, Colombia, Belgium, and the Philippines) were collected from the semi-annual reports of the Foreign Agency Registration Act (FARA) from 1996 to 2009. Economic outcome was measured by U.S. imports from the client countries and U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) toward them. This study found that the past PR expenditure holds power in forecasting future economic outcomes for Japan, Belgium, and the Philippines except Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on regional economic development increasingly embraces more nuanced perspectives on the evolution of clusters, industries and agglomerations. The extent to which the emergence and decline of clusters can be directed with intentional regional development strategies is, however, a major point of discussion. The article links the cluster life cycle concept to regional development strategies in order to examine the trajectory of Europe's largest chemical complex in and around the Port of Antwerp (Belgium). This chemical cluster has matured and currently is in a state of stability. Although the cluster did not experience growth over the last decades in terms of new entrants, it did transform internally and maintained its importance as a production centre. Thus, whereas lock-in mechanisms hampered growth, they also prevented the cluster from going into a state of decline. We argue that while regional development strategies stimulated new emerging clusters in the Flemish region, vested interests in the port and associated lock-in mechanisms have resisted such developments in Antwerp. New growth trajectories based on the chemical cluster were therefore difficult to recreate in the Antwerp region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the ways in which ‘good’ representation can be measured and assessed is by the degree of congruence between the preferences of the population and the preferences and policies of the political elite. One of the arguments for defending decentralisation is that governmental institutions on a smaller territorial scale can be closer to the population, and that they can provide policies that are more responsive to the population of the sub-states. This argument is often made in Belgium, where voters in Flanders traditionally vote centre-right, while the voters of Wallonia vote centre-left, and where federal coalitions need to reflect the preferences of both regions whereas regional governments can be responsive to their voters only. Using data from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, this paper tests this assumption and compares the left–right orientation of the population and of governments at the different institutional levels and regions. The findings suggest that sub-state governments are partially more congruent to their sub-state voters than federal governments. However, congruence gaps are less related to constraints in government formation than to changes in behaviour of key political actors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Unregistered temporary migration can create large discrepancies between death rates according to the legal, factual or habitual residence of the deceased. The most accurate death rates are those that refer to population numbers based on habitual residence, as they concern the population fully exposed to the hazards of a specific municipality. Using the Belgian population census, the register of vital events and individual death certificates, we calculate the death rates of the population with habitual residence in three large Belgian cities (Brussels, Liège and Schaarbeek) around 1910 and compare them with the typically calculated rates based on de facto deaths. Most significantly, the presence of medical institutions in large cities such as Brussels and Liège artificially increased the rates based on deaths within their territory. In the suburb of Schaarbeek, on the other hand, large numbers of people with habitual residence died outside the town. Consequently, our results suggest that for some age groups, Brussels' well-known excess mortality during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can partly be attributed to the large number of people without habitual residence who died in the capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we report on a qualitative and interpretative research project in which we gained in-depth knowledge about dynamics in ten federal public policy units in Belgium where a service user with experience of poverty was employed. Starting from an institutional theory perspective, it was argued that these service users with experience of poverty can possibly feature as institutional entrepreneurs or agents of change who initiate a critical reflection in the mindset of fellow social administrators about taken-for-granted practices, routines and rationales. In order to fulfill this ambition, we equally stressed that service users with experience of poverty should be able to perform two other roles as well: to provide direct support to citizens, especially those living in poverty during their contacts with a public policy unit, and to formulate concrete propositions to change some of the policy units' internal procedures. Our research findings reveal that these two roles provide a necessary breeding ground for further interaction and (in)formal dialogue between service users with experience of poverty and fellow social administrators about the quality and accessibility of service delivery. However, installing this shared responsibility proves to be a valuable but also gradual process, and we argue that it is therefore undesirable when service users with experience of poverty act as so-called 'heroes' in changing these taken-for-granted institutional practices, routines and rationales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on how different historical stages of socio-economic development in Brussels are played out on the ground over time in one particular inner-city neighbourhood, the Quartier Dansaert. In particular, I document the history of this neighbourhood and how urban change and gentrification have impacted the outlook of multilingualism and the development of multilingual discourses and language hierarchies in its material and semiotic landscape over time. By using the rich history of multilingualism in the Quartier Dansaert as a casestudy, I argue in favour of more historically-sensitive and longitudinal approaches to social and, in particular, linguistic change as played out in urban landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In peasant studies as well as agricultural and economic history, little is known about the diffusion of new agricultural knowledge in peasant regions and the ways in which smallholding families gained confidence to adopt new approaches to their farming activities. New agricultural innovations--especially those that required substantial cash outlays--were kept at arm's length because of the outcomes uncertainty, which could harm the survival strategies of smallholding peasants. This article elaborates on the spread of two innovativefertilizer improvements--animal urine and lime--in the eighteenth-century smallholding economy of Inland Flanders. It argues that fa rm size and social relations between smallholding peasants and larger farmers played a pivotal role in the dissemination of fertilizer knowledge. Smallholders did not stick to the safe application of current manures but instead adopted these new innovations after they saw the benefits on pioneering large farms. This study, therefore, confirms much about our understandings of a peasant behavior of risk limitation, yet also challenges it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is problematic to think of globalization as a new phenomenon and to believe that the phenomenon of a world city, embedded in the global division of labor, is a 20th century novelty. World city literature in sociology often emphasizes, if not assumes, the relatively recent emergence of world cities in the 'new' international division of labor. Sixteenth century Antwerp, however, was the first world city of an expanding capitalist world economy. Understanding this phenomenon and its decline can raise important questions about the modus operandi of subsequent world cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether works councils (WCs) in Belgium have a positive effect on firm performance, notably productivity and profitability, while taking the role of trade unions into account.Design/methodology/approach The authors first introduce the typical Belgian industrial relations system, discussing the similarities and differences with neighboring countries. This is followed by a brief overview of the relevant literature. Subsequently, the impact of Belgian employee representation on firm performance is estimated by means of OLS, using a newly developed questionnaire administered among Belgian CEOs. Special attention is given to moderating and mediating effects.Findings The authors find that Belgian WCs have a small (direct) significantly positive effect on labor productivity, but not on profitability. The additional results of the mediation test show tentatively that WCs might affect profitability indirectly, through their impact on productivity. Despite trade unions’ dominance in practice, the findings reveal that their impact is insignificant.Research limitations/implications Although nationwide, rich and representative, as well as statistically valid, the data set is rather small (196 usable observations). The data set offers ample opportunities to further explore what makes effective Belgian WCs different from their non-effective counterparts.Originality/value The data set is unique, and combines subjective CEO with objective performance data. The data offer the opportunity to do a first study into the special case of Belgium, which has a distinct union-dominated IR regime. In this study, the focus is furthermore on the rarely studied WC-trade union interaction. In addition, subtle moderation and mediation effects are estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Belgium was one of the first continental countries to undergo industrialization and develop an extensive transportation infrastructure during the nineteenth century, completing the integration of its internal market by the early twentieth century. As such, the country is an ideal case study of the driving forces behind the decisions that industries made about where to locate. An analysis of factors embedded in both the Heckscher-Ohlin model and the new economic geography indicates that the main determinant of Belgium’s industrial locational pattern between 1896 and 1961 was proximity to regions with a high market potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to map the spatial variations in the size of the shadow economy within Brussels. Reporting data provided by the National Bank of Belgium on the deposit of high denomination banknotes across bank branches in the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, the finding is that the shadow economy is concentrated in wealthier populations and not in deprived or immigrant communities. The outcome is a call to transcend the association of the shadow economy with marginalized groups and the wider adoption of this indirect method when measuring spatial variations in the shadow economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Belgian microdata, we assess the impact, on a hedonic regression, of the distortions arising from the choice of either a specific zoning system or the delineation of the study area. We also evaluate the biases that arise when spatial effects are not accounted for. Given that the dependent variable is interval-coded, controlling for spatial dependence in this context is challenging. We address this problem with two alternative strategies. Firstly, we use the Gibbs Sampling algorithm to estimate spatial econometric models which extends the interval regression model. A major drawback of this approach is that the implied estimation is proned to the endogeneity biases inherent to our hedonic regression model. To circumvent the endogeneity issues triggered by the first estimation strategy, we also use a two-stage estimation procedure with locational fixed effects. In all specifications, results are sensitive to the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) and to the choice of the delineation of the study area. Moreover, they confirm the existence of substantive spatial dependence. Conversely to the previous results with a negative elasticity for the percentage of the area covered by agriculture and a positive elasticity for the potential accessibility to jobs, the second approach implies opposite effects for those two variables. This indicates that dwellings close to agricultural areas and with a lower accessibility to the main employment centers are highly demanded and that endogeneity biases are not negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use pre-World War I Brussels Stock Exchange (BSE) data to investigate the relation between average stock returns and market beta, size, momentum, dividend yield and total risk on the cross-section of stock returns. Based on portfolio sorts and Fama-MacBeth regressions, we find no relationship between market beta, size or total risk and average returns. Momentum is strongly present in the entire data set as well as in subsamples based on size. We also find evidence for a weak value effect as measured by dividend yield. The flat relation between market beta and average return may be due to leverage-constrained investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal distribution of individual price changes is of crucial importance for business cycle theory and for the microfoundations of price adjustment. While it is routinely assumed that price changes are staggered over time, both theory and evidence are ambiguous. We use a large Belgian data set to analyze whether price changes are staggered or synchronized. We find that the more aggregated are the data, the closer is the distribution to perfect staggering. The results hold both for aggregation across products, and across locations. They are consistent with an economy in which idiosyncratic shocks are the main cause of price changes. (JEL E30, E31, D40 ) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robert Triffin became famous with his trenchant analyses of the vulnerabilities of the Bretton Woods system. These are still at the centre of many discussions today. This article argues that there is a remarkable continuity in Triffin's work. From his earliest writings, Triffin developed a vision that the international adjustment process was not functioning according to the classical mechanisms. This view was based on thorough empirical analyses of the Belgian economy during the Great Depression and shaped by a business cycle perspective with an emphasis on the disequilibria and the transition period. His doctoral dissertation on imperfect competition theory and his Latin American experience further reinforced this basic view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining estimates of demand relationships between goods and services during the periods of rationing, that characterized the first half of the twentieth century, is complicated by the uncertainty about both the period and the goods for which rationing is binding. Consequently, researchers have turned to using the difference between virtual and observed prices as an indicator of binding rationing. However, this often requires using external data from another country or an unrationed sample period to estimate virtual prices. In contrast, our methodology uses data from the rationed period to estimate virtual prices. The ration constrained revealed preference approach provides virtual prices that can be used to estimate a system of free demands. We then estimate the impact that rationing had on expenditure on unrationed goods using relationships between free and rationed demand elasticities. We apply our methodology to inter war period data from Belgium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limited availability of high quality and computer readable data seriously impedes research in history and finance. We introduce a new monthly return series for Belgian owned equity based on Brussels Stock Market data for the period 1832-1914 as an improvement to the popular Drappier index. Over this period, our dataset includes 446,374 prices, 23,976 dividends, 371 stock and reverse splits (or other capital operations) on 2037 stocks of 1387 (foreign and Belgian) companies. Our dataset includes all shares and bonds but also high-quality information on prices, dividends, shares outstanding and market capitalization. In addition, company, country and sector information is available. We construct value weighted, price weighted and equally weighted indices as well as dividend yields. We find three important results. First, total nominal returns hover between 3.29% and 5.35% per annum, depending on how individual stocks are aggregated into the index. Second, dividend income constitutes the major part of total return and dividend distributions have a clear seasonal pattern. Third, the results highlight several drawbacks of the Drappier indices, especially an upward bias in expected equity performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination into the commercial history of the Brabant region in Belgium during the 18th century, highlighting the growth and development of "respectability" as a socioeconomic good wielded by the middle class. Contextual information is provided regarding an economic crisis in the Brabantine town of Lier during the 1720s and its commercial consequences. Discussion is then given contrasting material culture and consumption patterns with social and economic class features of the era.

Few studies have addressed the question how the two main linguistic groups in Belgium (French and Flemish speakers) code each other. The research reported in this article is based on a storytelling forum of 56 persons that gathered five times. The storytelling sessions yielded 91 different stories about living in a bilingual society. These were analysed by two independent analysts, using the actantial scheme of Greimas. Five common scenarios were uncovered. These are clearly marked by the history of linguistic politics in Belgium. The Flemish scenarios are marked by a romantic nationalism, which views a nation as an emanation of a cultural specificity of which language is an important, albeit not the sole, element. The stories provide a macro-micro link, bridging an historical trajectory and its view of nation building, to stories about encounters with the linguistically other. The French scenarios show a more individualistic approach, considering inter-linguistic encounters as a setting in which a merely practical problem arises that can easily be solved when the one who speaks the two languages is willing to use the language of the other. In this way, the historically grown political positions of the two groups are 'scenariorized' into stories that people experience as lived experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Belgians did not emigrate in large numbers impelled by overpopulation, persecution, war or economic depression. Crises in the Flemish linen industry and industrial strife in the Walloon factories and collieries were push factors, nevertheless, those who chose to better their economic circumstances in a developing virgin region such as Western Canada, which was in a full economic expansion, often aspired to retire in their native environment. The Belgian government never sponsored emigration but it did regulate the conditions awaiting emigrants in Antwerp (the port of departure for thousands of Europeans) and on board steamships. It also inquired regularly through consular officers into conditions expatriates could expect and experienced. In the settlement of Western Canada, Belgians stood apart from most ethnic groups on several grounds. First, they came cautiously, usually well informed, and they avoided ethnic bloc settlement. They developed a social network emanating from St. Boniface to direct new arrivals to suitable locations and contact persons. They engaged not only in mixed and wheat farming, but some rapidly specialized in dairying, market gardening, sugar beet culture, as well as fruit growing in B.C. A number took up village occupations while others chose urban life revolving around skilled trades, commerce and construction, notably in St. Boniface. However, they did not develop an array of ethnic institutions so they fell into the category of groups lacking institutional completeness, and, rather, integrated into existing community associations. Finally, as a national group, rather than an ethnic group, they integrated into both dominant host societies -- the Anglophone for most of the Flemish and the Francophone for the Walloons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this assessment of the intersection of trade, picturing collections and knowledge-making in Early Modern Antwerp, the focus is on the role of luxury glass, mirror and lens technology and the science of optics. Emphasizing the social ties that facilitated these intersections, it is argued that newly invented luxury goods such as the pictures of collections and the art cabinets allowed Antwerp craftsmen, artists and art dealers to export the message that the material objects in which they traded were objects of knowledge: not to everyone, however, but to those who desired membership of a select community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Belgium, housing policy is one of the responsibilities of the regional governments. According to the Belgian Constitution, every citizen has the right to decent and affordable housing. However, the violation of this right for many families is increasingly contested. In particular, the problems of poor housing quality and of rising housing costs on the private rental market are being raised. In the past, housing policy in Belgium (and Flanders) has mainly been directed towards home ownership. There is no housing benefit for the private rental sector and the social housing sector remains limited. The Flemish government is now being challenged to develop a new approach towards the private rental sector. The introduction of a housing allowance is being considered. In this article, we describe the problems affecting the private rental market in Flanders. We discuss possible policy instruments, more specifically the introduction of a housing allowance, within the theoretical framework of neo-classical economic theory and within the institutional and regulatory framework of Flemish housing policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the distinguishing features of Belgian economics is that, from the early 1920s, so many of Belgium's best economists pursued postgraduate studies at top American universities, a case of ‘temporary’ migration. This was made possible by the fellowships granted by the Commission for Relief in Belgium, a legacy of the First World War. After a stay in the US of a few years, most returned to Belgium. However, they maintained strong links with the US. Also, they tried to recreate in Belgium the most valuable elements of their American experience. It would lead to a strong and early Americanization of Belgian economics. Moreover, they were at the forefront of several initiatives to organize economics on a European scale, such as the European Economic Review and the European Economic Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regeneration practices in the EU district in Brussels clearly reveal how a mismatch has grown between Brussels' economic and cultural globalization and its political-institutional parochialization. Brussels' global mission is being inserted into well-tested local formats of urban governance that have existed throughout the postwar period. Local powerbrokers continue to form remarkable economic growth coalitions that are successfully manoeuvring through obstacles that would prevent them from cashing in on Brussels' internationalized economy through property development. Any government strategy that would deal with the rapid internationalization of Brussels and the EU district--socially, economically, culturally or politically --is simply absent. Important segments of Brussels' social fabric are excluded from participation in public political and cultural life. Meanwhile, the success of extreme right-wing parties--which are fiercely contesting the multiculturalization of Brussels--has risen to alarming levels, while different cultural groups in Brussels are de facto generating hybridized cultural expressions which might form the base of a new modus vivendi of community, citizenship, economy and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se presenta un trabajo con el objeto de tratar de establecer algunos principios generales acerca de los efectos de aviso de los cambios ocurridos en la tasa de descuento de un país sobre el valor en divisas de su moneda. Se analizaron experiencias registradas en el Reino Unido, Alemania, Japón, Canadá y Bélgica, de las que se deduce que los electos de aviso dependen en gran medida de la naturaleza del mecanismo de tasa de descuento, así como de la manera en que las autoridades monetarias lo aplican.

Discusses the employment of migrant workers in Belgium. Economic functions of migrant workers; Indications of deportation; Influence of a return policy in the construction sector on employment, production and supply.

Presents information on the transformation of Belgium, with direct reference to the political management of cultural diversity. Challenges facing the transformation of Belgium; Details on a federal formula used to avert economic crises in Belgium; Circumstances surrounding the crisis of the Belgian state; Details on the deterioration in communal relations after the institution of linguistic boundaries in 1962.

Focuses on the rural economy and the provision of aid to the poor in Belgium during the period of 1846 to 1848. Development of industry and infrastructure; Analysis of geographical patterns; Characterization of the rural economy; Economic conditions in Central Belgium.

Examines the level and composition of family income of the Ghent working-class around 1900 at different phases of the life-cycle. Small gap in the relative wealth of the families of artisans and cotton, linen and metal workers; Increased work effort of wives and children of textile families.

Background: The number of cases of Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) is increasing in Europe. The described epidemic is mostly confined to HIV positive men who have sex with men (MSM). However, dissemination of LGV from HIV positive to HIV negative MSM could take place due to the implementation of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and subsequent possible decrease in condom use. We describe here the LGV epidemiology in Belgium before the PrEP-era, starting from 2011 up to the end of the first half of 2017.Methods: A descriptive analysis of the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of all LGV cases was performed. Fisher's exact test was used to compare symptomatic to asymptomatic patients. Logistic regression models were used to check for trends over time for: number of LGV cases, HIV status and symptoms.Results: The number of LGV cases rose by a factor four, from 21 in 2011 to 88 in 2016, and regression models showed a positive trend estimate of 14% increase per half year (p < 0.001). LGV decreased among HIV positive cases (odds ratio (OR): 0.79, p < 0.001) and increased among HIV negative cases (OR: 1.27, p < 0.001). In addition, a rise in the number of asymptomatic LGV cases (6.7%) was observed (OR:1.39, p = 0.047). Asymptomatic cases were also less likely to be HIV (p = 0.046) or Hepatitis C positive (p = 0.027).Conclusions: The rise of LGV in HIV negative MSM has now been documented. If we aim to halt the epidemic in HIV negative MSM, future public health strategies should include LGV testing of all Chlamydia trachomatis positive samples from MSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]