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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]

Studies on fertility among second-generation migrant women across Europe have mainly treated the second generation as a rather homogenous group, not linking and distinguishing fertility patterns by type of partner. This study investigates how and to what extent the origin and generation of the partner (endogamous or exogamous as well as diversity in endogamy) of Turkish and Moroccan second-generation women in Belgium is related to first-birth rates. We distinguish three types of partnerships: those in an endogamous union with a first-generation partner, those in an endogamous union with a second-generation partner, and those in an exogenous union where the partner is of native Belgian origin. We use linked Census-Register data for the period 2001-2006. Applying event history models, our findings reveal clear differences between the endogamous and exogamous unions with respect to the timing of first births. Second-generation women of both origin groups have the lowest parenthood rates when the partner is of native Belgian origin. However, no variation is found within endogamous unions. For endogamous unions with a first-generation partner, the parenthood rates are approximately the same (and not higher, as was expected) compared to when the partner is also of second generation. [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]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including wealth inequality in Belgium in 16th century, inequality in Netherlands and history of economic inequality.

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]

News content diversity is generally considered to be an essential precondition for the promotion of social pluralism. However, how diversity of news content should be conceptualized and measured is less clear. We use a content analysis of newspaper articles about immigration (2013-14) in Belgium (Flanders) to measure the diversity of actors and viewpoints in the news, and to study the link between those two subdimensions of content diversity. We find that the representation of a plurality of active actors in a news article seems to go hand in hand with a more diverse range of viewpoints. The findings show that there are no significant differences in the level of actor and viewpoint diversity between quality and popular newspapers. However, the length of the article has a positive effect on providing more diversity. Moreover, our results indicate that allowing for individual immigrants to talk in the reporting is fundamental to promoting a more positive representation of immigration in the news. [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]

By means of an in-depth analysis of 132 partnership agreements, which had been notarized in the city of Antwerp between 1480 and 1620, the present article aspires to provide a substantiated narrative on the use as well as legal features of private partnerships in the early modern Low Countries. In so doing, it became apparent that such small-scale partnerships constituted an effective means in the hands of, mostly non-related, merchants and craftsmen who were looking for legal certainty. Moreover, the examination of these partnership agreements demonstrated the wide-ranging contractual freedom that contracting parties in sixteenth-century Antwerp could dispose of and that therefore historical reality not necessarily complies with legal ideas and concepts provided for by legislative or statutory documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Belgian History / Revue Belge d'Histoire Contemporaine is the property of Cegesoma and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Topics of the July 2016 issue of the periodical "Journal of Belgian History" are introduced including economic and fertility fluctuations in Wallonia from the 18th to 20th centuries, legends surrounding Belgian francs-tireurs guerrillas during World War I, and Belgian magistrate Eugène Predom's reaction to German occupation during World War II.

The article discusses the economic development of several member countries of intergovernmental economic organisation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for June 2016. Topics include the strong output growth in Australia, the need to reduce the financial relation between banks and public sector to revive confidence of banks in Austria, and the improvement of profit margins and financial conditions of Belgium-based firms.

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]

This article derives a gravity equation for commuting and uses it to identify the effect of regional borders on commuting. We build on the seminal trade paper by Anderson and Van Wincoop (2003, Gravity with gravitas: a solution to the border puzzle. The American Economic Review, 93: 170-192) and highlight some interesting similarities between our model and Wilson's doubly constrained gravity equation [Wilson, A. (2010) Entropy in urban and regional modelling: retrospect and prospect. Geographical analysis, 42: 364-394], a workhorse model from spatial interaction theory. The model is estimated by applying a negative binomial regression method on Belgian inter-municipal commuting data. We show that regional borders exert a sizeable residual deterrent effect on commuting, a finding with obvious implications for regional labour market integration. This border effect differs significantly between regions and depends on the direction in which the border is crossed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Checklists for evaluation capacity builders include a wide range of building blocks for supporting evaluation activity. Yet, the relative importance of each building block is not clear. The purpose of this article is to identify the capacity related factors that are necessary , but not necessarily sufficient, for organisations that wish to institutionalise high quality policy evaluations. To retrieve these factors, we rely on the necessity function in qualitative comparative analysis. We present a study of twenty-seven organisations of the Flemish public sector (Belgium), in which the introduction of policy evaluations is relatively recent. Our case analysis thus sheds an interesting light upon how policy evaluation, and the underlying capacity to evaluate is given shape. Our findings point at evaluation demand as the most necessary prerequisite for fostering evaluation activity, more so than supply related factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a systematic assessment of the magnitude of transaction costs of public infrastructure delivery, based on the three attributes of transaction costs, being the asset specificity, uncertainty and frequency of a transaction. Design/methodology/approach – Non-parametric tests were used to test the transaction cost differences between different procurement types. Findings – The authors find empirical support, based on a sample of 172 public infrastructure projects in Belgium, that construction firms make higher relation specific investments to their transaction partners under a public-private partnership (PPP) than a under a traditional public procurement (TPP). In addition, the authors found that PPP transactions are burdened by a greater uncertainty and a less mature market than TPP transactions. Research limitations/implications – Given the complexity of this research, the scope is limited to: a strict distinction between two procurement types, one geographical area, a limited time scope and a focus on the private sector. Hence, the authors suggest that further research broadens the scope of either one of these aspects in order to get a better understanding of the total transaction cost burden of the public infrastructure market. Practical implications – This study offers policy makers form a better understanding of the transaction cost implications when evaluating different procurement types. Originality/value – This paper serves as one of the first systematic comparative analyses of the magnitude and determinants of transaction costs for the delivery of public infrastructure. [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]

We investigate the effect of domestic market competition on firm-level export intensity. We employ a comprehensive dataset of Belgian firms from 2005-2008, when the fall in the number of firms engaged in trade was accompanied by a growing amount of transactions. The resulting increase in the domestic concentration of Belgian firms has sparked numerous debates, since the direction of causality between domestic market structure and export performance is unclear. We apply the fractional logit estimator and control for both self-selection and simultaneity bias. We find that a positive linkage exists between the level of competition and export intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the economic development of various Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries including Australia, Austria and Belgium. Various graphs related to their performance that are presented includes resource sector adjustment, fluctuation in house prices and gross domestic product (GDP) of market prices.

The Belgian Corporate Governance Code was published in 2004 and updated in 2009 to provide standards of good practice. Since 2008, Belgian law has imposed the creation of an audit committee for all listed firms. There are many published, empirical studies that focus on the relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial statement quality. However, to the researchers' knowledge, this study is the first to consider this relationship in a Belgian context, given that audit committees are a new phenomenon in this country. This paper investigates whether the audit committee characteristics suggested in the literature, in the Corporate Governance Code and in the law affect financial statement quality. Data from 2008 and 2009 are used for 60 Belgian firms that have established an audit committee. This empirical study demonstrates a positive and significant association between the proportion of audit committee members concurrently holding more than three directorships and financial statement quality. It also finds evidence that audit committee independence is positively and significantly related to financial statement quality. Several additional analyses are also performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indebted cities were a widespread phenomenon during the Ancien Régime. However, some found ways to innovate the management of their municipal debt, whilst others fell prey to over-indebtedness or default. In this article we have left the success stories aside and focused on the latter. Using early modern Antwerp as a case study, we have disentangled the underlying mechanisms that ultimately lead to over-indebtedness and (in some cases) default. Whilst the economic climate and the relationship between city and state have been rightly identified as major factors in the previous literature, our contribution brings another element to the table, namely, the inflexibility of long-established rent arrangements and the entanglement between the ruling elite and the rentiers. We show that there was a strong overlap between both groups, which had a huge impact on the financial policy of cities during the early modern period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the history of urban agriculture, particularly allotment gardens, from the nineteenth century onwards. The authors especially highlight the example of Belgium, but relate its history to wider European and international trends. Issues addressed include social and economic aspects of allotment gardening, for example as an opportunity for poor people, its use by the ruling classes to pacify the lower classes politically and avert revolution, and its function in creating a sense of urban community.

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]

The broad mite, Polyphagotarsonemus latus (Banks), is one of the major pests causing severe economic damage in Rhododendron simsii Planch hybrid production in Belgium. In order to optimize biological control programs and to parameterize warning programs, we studied the effect of environmental temperature on the development of P. latus on R. simsii leaves. In combination with a photoperiod of 16:8 h (L:D) and a relative humidity of 80 ± 5 %, six constant temperatures (15, 17, 20, 25, 30 and 33 ± 1 °C), were studied. Total developmental times of 13.3, 10.5, 6.6, 4.2, 3.5 and 4.0 days were measured, respective to each of the aforementioned temperatures. Development of females took significantly longer than that of males at 15, 17, 20 and 30 °C. Survival rates observed between 17 and 30 °C varied between 43.5 and 96.9 %. Lower survival rates were found at 15 and 33 °C, i.e. 31.8 and 23.6 %, respectively. The lower, optimal and upper developmental threshold ( t, t and t, respectively) and thermal constant ( K) of the pest were estimated for each life stage by a linear and two non-linear models. Based on measurements of total development of P. latus thermal thresholds of 10.0, 30.1 and 36.0 °C were calculated for t, t and t, respectively. The number of degree-days needed to complete immature development when feeding on R. simsii was 66.7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Polish Journal of Management Studies is the property of Czestochowa University of Technology, Faculty of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

Copyright of Journal of Belgian History / Revue Belge d'Histoire Contemporaine is the property of Cegesoma and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyses public-private partnerships in Belgium's economic diplomacy from the perspective of multinational companies (MNCS). The concept of corporate political activity (CPA) is therefore introduced. CPA is seen as a part of business diplo-macy (BD), which companies use in order to defend their interests. Eight stock-listed Belgian multinationals (BMNCS) were interviewed using single, semi-structured inter-views. This exploratory study focused on whether or not companies contact public officials, which strategies they use and how these strategies are organized in order to defend their interests abroad. The empirical data revealed that BMNCS enter into rela-tionships with national and supranational actors. Information-sharing is the central aim of these relationships, because of the mutual realization that these contacts are important. This was less so, however, at the international level. In short, BMNCS will, depending on the subject and/or the institutional context, rely on the services offered by Belgian economic diplomacy. They will initially, however, also include diplomatic functions of their own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of the Jesuits and of the Catholic church more generally in producing 17th century Latin documents about the city of Antwerp, Belgium. It also describes these documents' value as historical sources. Among other topics addressed are the Jesuit priest Carolus Scribani who published many of the documents, the role of the Jesuits in Antwerp of the time, and the economic and political influence of the Jesuits throughout Europe.

The article discusses the artisanal glassmaking industry in Antwerp, Belgium during the early modern period, with particular focus on the determination of value of glass pieces. Other topics include the spread of the glass industry from Venice, Italy, the translations of various Italian technical works on glassmaking subjects such as recipes, alchemy, and chalcedony glass, and how these translations were used to build the glass industry and increase Antwerp's influence as a world cultural center.

The article discusses the role of translations of foreign works in the book industry of Antwerp, Belgium, during the 15th century. It describes these translations as including religious works, music books, and literature. Among other topics addressed are the tole of illustrations, the use of books to disseminate practical knowledge, and the practical aspects of printing including typography.

The article discusses the 16th century silver-working trade in Antwerp, Belgium. In particular, it describes both the silver artwork produced in that trade and the trade's influence on other artwork such as painting. Among other topics discussed are popularity of the religious motif of the gifts of the Magi and how that image was associated with the city, how artwork was economically valued, and the stock exchange in Antwerp.

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]

The article discusses the economic position and activities of building industry artisan guilds in Brussels, Belgium, in the eighteenth century. Issues considered include historiographical debates about the role of guilds in early modern social and economic history, public works and building projects in Brussels, and changes and continuities in the organizational structure of the guilds during this time period.

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 western tubenose goby, Proterorhinus semilunaris, of Ponto-Caspian origin, already recorded in 2002 from the lowest course of the Dutch River Meuse, was caught upstream for the first time in 2008 in the Border Meuse, the river-stretch forming the border between Belgium and the Netherlands. In 2009 it reached the upstream extremity of the Border Meuse in Wallonia and in 2010 it was recorded in Flanders, in a canal connected to the Border Meuse. Discussion is provided about its migration pathway. Further upstream expansion of the western tubenose goby may be expected in less man-modified and lightly navigated sections of the River Meuse, e.g. those lined with macrophyte-rich habitats. Behavioural competition with the native bullhead Cottus perifretum is likely and might lead to a decline in the bullhead population. [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.

In this paper we explore a matched employer-employee data set to investigate the presence of gender wage discrimination in the Belgian private economy labour market. Contrary to many existing papers, we analyse gender wage discrimination using an independent productivity measure. Using firm-level data, we are able to compare direct estimates of a gender productivity differential with those of a gender wage differential. We take advantage of the panel structure to identify gender-related differences from within-firm variation. Moreover, inspired by recent developments in the production function estimation literature, we address the problem of endogeneity of the gender mix using a structural production function estimator alongside instrumental variable-general method of moments (IV-GMM) methods where lagged value of labour inputs are used as instruments. Our results suggest that there is no gender wage discrimination inside private firms located in Belgium, on the contrary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The article aims to present an explanation for the complete absence of public municipal banks in the Southern Low Countries, and particularly in its two main principalities Flanders and Brabant, between 1400 and 1800. The reasons were complex, lying in a combination of the presence of adequate substitutes such as money changers, cashiers and town exchange offices (stadswissels) and countervailing factors (adverse economic conditions, insufficient financial resources, special interests of persons and lobbies). It is also argued that strong government control of the Antwerp urban debt prevented the local authorities from experimenting with a municipal bank. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

This article examines the interplay between retail changes and transformations in the material culture of Antwerp, a provincial town in the southern Netherlands. We argue that major changes in the eighteenth-century material culture and retail sector were not significantly linked to preconditions of economic growth and urbanization. The Antwerp ‘retail paradox’ is that of a shrinking economic horizon running parallel to material culture and retail transformations, usually connected to expanding urban economies and societies. Changing retail and consumer practices explain the growing and prospering retail sector, rather than a growing economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about the economic importance of Flemish farmers in the Aalst (Alost), Belgium area between 1650 and 1800. It is noted that Flemish farmers from this time period were active in a commercial sense, although the details of their market activities were unknown. The author presents his research on the household economy of families settled around a small town in Flemish Belgium, in which farmers were seen to act as mediators between townspeople and peasants. Further comments are given on these farmers' influence on agrarian and industrial trade.