Economy of the Netherlands

History

After gaining its independence from the empire of Philip II of Spain in 1581, the Netherlands experienced almost a century of explosive economic growth. A technological revolution in shipbuilding and trade knowledge and capital, due to Protestant traders of Flanders who fled to the Netherlands, helped the young Republic become the dominant trade power by the mid-17th century. In 1670 the Dutch merchant marine totalled 568,000 tons of shipping—about half the European total. Pillars of this position were the dominance of the Amsterdam Entrepot in European trade, and that of the Dutch East India Company (or Vereenigde Oost-Indische Companie - VOC) and West India Companies in intercontinental trade. Unique was that the V.O.C was the first multinational within one of the first stock markets in the world. Beside trade, an early "industrial revolution" (powered by wind, water and peat), land reclamation from the sea, and agricultural revolution, helped the Dutch economy achieve the highest standard of living in Europe (and presumably the world) by the middle of the 17th century. Affluence facilitated what is known as the Dutch Golden Age. This economic boom abruptly came to an end by a combination of political-military upheavals and adverse economic developments around 1670. Still the Netherlands kept a high level of prosperity, due to trade and agriculture.

Towards the 1800s, the Netherlands did not industrialize as rapidly as some other counties in Europe. One explanation for this is that the Netherlands were struggling to come to terms with having lost their dominant economical (based mainly on trade and agriculture) and political position in the world. Griffiths argues that government policies made possible a unified Dutch national economy in the 19th century. They included the abolition of internal tariffs and guilds; a unified coinage system; modern methods of tax collection; standardized weights and measures; and the building of many roads, canals, and railroads.

As in the rest of Europe, the 19th century saw the gradual transformation of the Netherlands into a modern middle-class industrial society. The number of people employed in agriculture decreased while the country made a heroic effort to revive its stake in the highly competitive industrial and trade business. The Netherlands lagged behind Belgium until the late 19th century in industrialization, then caught up by about 1920. Major industries included textiles and (later) the great Philips industrial conglomerate. Rotterdam became a major shipping and manufacturing center. Poverty slowly declined and begging largely disappeared along with steadily improving working conditions for the population.

In the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered large natural gas fields. The export of natural gas led to large windfall profits. However, as an unforeseen consequence, these were believed to have led to a decline in the manufacturing sector in the Netherlands.

Government

While the private sector is the cornerstone of the Dutch economy, governments at different levels have a large part to play. Public spending, excluding social security transfer payments, was at 28% of GDP in 2011. Total tax revenue was 38.7% of GDP in 2010, which was below the EU average. In addition to its own spending, the government plays a significant role through the permit requirements and regulations pertaining to almost every aspect of economic activity. The government combines a rigorous and stable microeconomic policy with wide-ranging structural and regulatory reforms. The government has gradually reduced its role in the economy since the 1980s. Privatisation and deregulation is still continuing. With regards to social and economic policy, the government cooperates with its so called social partners (trade unions and employers' organizations). The three parties come together in the Social-Economic Council (‘Sociaal Economische Raad’), the main platform for social dialogue.

Labour market and social welfare

The Dutch labour market has relatively strict regulations for employers on firing employees, although by June 2014 the House of Representatives has agreed to loosen these regulations. Due to the costs of employees and costs of firing them, a big part of the working force (about 15% of the working force) is an independent one person company (ZZP). They are independent and get paid by delivery without higher social costs. Another big part of the workforce is hired as temporary workforce. State unemployment benefits in the form of a 70% benefit of the employee's last-earned salary for up to three years (with a maximum of roughly 2500 euros per month) are available for fired employees, provided that they have worked for a certain minimum time period, usually 26 weeks.

Age of retirement

Every Dutch citizen gets the AOW, a state pension, from the age of 67. Married couples or those who live together receive 50% of minimum wage per person. The biggest part (about 70%) earns an extra pension from the private pension funds. Employees are obliged to take part in the sector pension funds. In total the amount of pension funds are above 1400 billion in 2015 for less than 17 million people. Employees receive on average about 70% of their last salary. During the economic crisis and because of low interest rates, the pensions funds have big problems to increase pensions with the inflation. The Dutch pension system is regarded as one of the best in the world.

Home mortgage interest deduction

The Netherlands was one of the few countries in the world where the interest paid on mortgages is fully deductible from income tax. Since 2013 big changes were made. The conditions of a high percent lever of mortgages has been reduced and also tax benefits. The result was a housing crisis, with a decrease of prices almost 25% percent. The last year is backing up fast with a recovery of 10% to even 0% in the most popular cities.

The Service sector accounts for more than half of the national income, primarily in transportation, distribution and logistics, financial areas, software development and the creative industry. The breadth of service providers in financial services and a Protestant work ethic have contributed to the Netherlands achieving a DAW Index score of 5 in 2012. Industrial activity is dominated by the machinery, electronics/high tech industry, metalworking, oil refining, chemical, and food-processing industries. Construction amounts to about 6% of GDP. Agriculture and fishing, although visible and traditional Dutch activities, account for just 2%.

The Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fifth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.

Natural Gas

While its oil reserves in the North Sea are of little importance, in the Netherlands have an estimated 25% of natural gas reserves in the EU. Natural gas reserves of the Netherlands are estimated (as of 2014) to be about 600 billion cubic feet, or about 0.3% of the world total. In 2014-2015 the government decided to reduce the production of gas significantly due to problems of sinking ground, differential settlement levels and tremors (small earth quakes) causing damages to properties. This will cost about 0.2% on economic growth in 2015 and the year after.

Beginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas, generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades to come. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth, impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease.

The discovery of the large Groningen natural gas field in 1959 and the subsequently massive windfalls accrued, were believed to have led to a decline in the manufacturing sector in the Netherlands.

Nuclear energy

Researchers in the Netherlands began studying nuclear energy in the 1930s and began construction of research reactor Dodewaard in 1955. Researchers’ goal was to introduce nuclear power technology by 1962 and replace fossil fuels. In 1968, a test nuclear reactor was attached to the power grid. This unit was shut down in 1997. In the 1970s, the Dutch chose a policy that required reprocessing all spent nuclear fuel. In 1984, the government decided to create a long-term (100 years) storage facility for all intermediate and low-level radioactive waste and research strategies for ultimate disposal. In September 2003, the Central Organization for Radioactive Waste created an interim storage facility for high-level waste. The Netherlands' only commercial nuclear reactor is Borssele, which became operational in 1973 and as of 2011 produces about 4% of the country’s electricity. The older Dodewaard nuclear power plant was a test reactor that later got attached to the national grid but was closed in 1997. A 2MW research reactor is located in Delft, as part of the physics department of Delft University of Technology. This reactor is not meant for energy provision, but used as neutron- and positron-source for research.

In 1994, the States General of the Netherlands voted to phase out nuclear power after a discussion of nuclear waste management. In 1997, the power station at Dodewaard was shut down and the government decided it was planning to end Borssele's operating license in 2003. This has since been postponed to 2034, if it complied with the highest safety standards. The owners, Essent and Delta, will invest 500 million euro in sustainable energy, together with the government—money which the government claims otherwise should have been paid to the plants' owners as compensation. After the 2010 election, the new government was open to expanding nuclear power. Both of the companies that share ownership of Borssele are proposing to build new reactors. In January 2012, Delta announced it postpones any decision to start building a second nuclear power plant.

Tourism

In 2011 the Netherlands was visited by 11.3 million foreign tourists. In 2012, the Dutch tourism industry contributed 5.4% in total to the country's GDP and 9.6% in total to its employment. With its global ranking of 147th and 83rd place for total contribution to respectively GDP and employment, tourism is a relatively small sector of the Dutch economy. North Holland was by far the most popular province for foreign tourists in 2011. Out of all 11.3 million tourists, 6 million visited North Holland. South Holland took the second place with 1.4 million. Germans, Britons and Belgians made up the majority of foreign tourists, respectively 3, 1.5 and 1.4 million. There are seven World Heritage Sites in the Netherlands. The Netherlands are well known for their art and rich historical heritage.

Largest companies

The Netherlands is home to several large multinationals. Royal Dutch Shell is the largest private company of the Netherlands by revenue and the second largest in the world after Exxon Mobil. Other well-known multinationals are Heineken, Ahold, Philips, TomTom, Unilever, Randstad and ING, all of which have their headquarters in Amsterdam except Unilever which is located in Rotterdam. Thousands of companies of non-Dutch origin have their headquarters in the Netherlands, like EADS, LyondellBasell and IKEA, because of attractive Corporate tax levels.

The Netherlands' biggest companies as of 2011 are as following: