The COVID-19 pandemic has caused both academic and financial hardship for students pursuing higher education in the Netherlands, including study delays and layoffs. Given that these types of...Show moreThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused both academic and financial hardship for students pursuing higher education in the Netherlands, including study delays and layoffs. Given that these types of incidents have a bearing on students' overall financial behaviour and that student loans are a common tool among students to finance their postsecondary education, one would expect these effects of the pandemic to have a direct impact on student borrowing behaviour. However, there is another variable to take into account, namely students' financial preferences, particularly with regard to having or taking on debt. Accordingly, this study reports on the degree of debt aversion and how it affects the borrowing behaviour of students in Dutch higher education during this crisis. This relationship is examined by means of three hypotheses and corresponding multiple regression analyses with moderation effects, using data obtained through the use of a survey and an additive index measuring the degree of debt aversion. This research has shown that the financial preference of debt aversion has a negative impact on the borrowing behaviour of students. In other words, the higher a student’s degree of debt aversion is, the lower their monthly amount of student loans will be. This relationship does not differ depending on whether or not a student has been directly affected by the pandemic and the effects thereof.Show less
This thesis provides an alternative view on the Quality of Government (QoG) framework. The current norm within this framework is that impartiality in bureaucrats’ decision-making leads to better...Show moreThis thesis provides an alternative view on the Quality of Government (QoG) framework. The current norm within this framework is that impartiality in bureaucrats’ decision-making leads to better governmental outcomes because citizens perceive the government institutions to be more effective. Based on criticisms of this framework, this thesis provides an alternative metric of decision-making for street-level bureaucrats; equity: decision-making by government officials that temporarily favors members of marginalized groups in society over people that come from a privileged group in society with the purpose of creating more equality amongst societal groups. It is hypothesized that equity affects citizens’ perceptions of governmental institutions in four ways: (1) it increases the suitability of decisions made by street-level bureaucrats to the individual cases, (2) it increases the accessibility of public institutions to citizens, (3) it decreases the predictability of a requests’ outcome and (4) it decreases the timeliness with which is responded to citizens’ requests. Based on these four hypotheses, the general expectation is that equity creates a better citizen perception of governmental institutions. To test this, an exploratory small-N comparative case study is made in which the Dutch SVB and Allowance of the Dutch Tax Department are compared. The aim is to provide scholars with a more nuanced understanding of the QoG framework and for practitioners to have a wider tool-set available which they can use to provide services to citizens.Show less
This thesis studies the influence of the nationality of the President of the European Commission on the share of the total EU budget that the President’s country of origin receives. I focus on the...Show moreThis thesis studies the influence of the nationality of the President of the European Commission on the share of the total EU budget that the President’s country of origin receives. I focus on the President of the European Commission because he or she arguably has more power and influence on the allocation of the EU budget than any other Commissioner. I analyse the period 1977-2018. The results from the entire sample show no significant effect. However, when looking at the EU era (1992-2018), there is a significant positive effect. For this period, supplying the EC President causes a 0.814 percentage point increase in the overall EU budget share that a country receives. This translates to an increase of 850 million euros per year. The results were obtained from a regression which includes certain control variables as well as year and country fixed effects.Show less
In the Netherlands, top civil servants have an important role, as they influence the policies that affect the daily life of the Dutch population. Among top civil servants, there is an elite group...Show moreIn the Netherlands, top civil servants have an important role, as they influence the policies that affect the daily life of the Dutch population. Among top civil servants, there is an elite group called the Top Management Group (TMG) which were established in 2000 and now consist of the 94 highest civil servants in the Netherlands. The TMG members are selected based on certain competences: political craft, managerial competencies, and subject-matter expertise. Each of these competences are influenced by the TMG member’s education. Post-educational institutes have also become more common for top civil servants to attend. Which could change the education background of the top civil servants. The aim of this research is therefore to evaluate the TMG members’ educational backgrounds and determine whether there is a difference between the educational background for the TMG members between 2000 and 2022. The following question is central to this research: ‘How and why has the educational background of the civil servants in the Dutch Top Management Group (TMG) changed between 2000 and 2022?’.Show less
The European Commission, as the guardian of the treaties, has a powerful tool of infringement procedure to enforce the EU Member States to comply with European commitments. In some cases, the...Show moreThe European Commission, as the guardian of the treaties, has a powerful tool of infringement procedure to enforce the EU Member States to comply with European commitments. In some cases, the infringement dies down soon after it is initiated, and in other cases, the Member States and the Commission solve their disputes in the European Court of Justice. Most commonly, procedures are related to one specific legislation type – directives – due to their binding, but flexible nature to interpret laws negotiated at the supranational level. The non-compliance stems from a variety of reasons, some connected with Member States` inability, others – with the unwillingness to implement. However, how do these reasons relate to the process of infringement procedures? This thesis brings light to the political nature of the topic to reveal the motives behind the Commission`s actions to escalate or give up infringements. While substantial financial and administrative challenges of the Member State are viewed as a temporary hiccup for implementation, the Commission does not tolerate purposeful delay to align domestic preferences and administrative coordination with European provisions. Interestingly, the thesis reveals an important role of informal negotiations between the Member States and the Commission before the start of official infringement procedures. Finally, the thesis concludes that the Commission aims to assure that every EU citizen has access to the same opportunities, and infringement procedures allow it to do exactly that.Show less
