Caroline Berden joined SEO Economic Research's Care & Social Security Cluster as a Researcher on 1 October 2008. She studied econometrics/mathematical economics at Maastricht University. Caroline worked as a research assistant at the Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organizations from 2004 to 2008. She was awarded a PhD at the end of 2008, for her thesis 'Risk aversion and Equilibria, Intertemporal Transfers, Strategic Claims', which examined a number of elements of game theory. At SEO Economic Research she has acquired a great deal of experience with cost-benefit analyses in a wide range of areas. The research Caroline has carried out is listed below.


Market forces 

• Developments in the childcare market. The new Childcare Act has not eliminated the waiting lists and the quality of childcare has declined. The market has yet to exhibit an optimum performance. 
• Freedom of choice in the Exceptional Medical Expenses Act. Interviews and literature studies were carried out to obtain an insight into the extent to which clients entitled to benefits pursuant to the Exceptional Medical Expenses are in a position to make carefully-considered choices between care providers (or to opt for their help from relatives and representatives).

Remuneration and payment 

• Effect of a new remuneration system for general practitioners. The new system has resulted in an increase in general practitioners' care volumes. The results from this research were published in an annex to the Dutch Healthcare Authority's Monitor Huisartsen 2008. 

Evaluation and effect studies 

• Evaluation of the current pension value transfer system. This research provided an insight into the volume of value transfer and the financial flows, the effects of value transfers on pension funds and insurers and the resultant bottlenecks. 
•  Effect of the amount of the childcare allowance on the labour participation rate. The 50% reduction of parental contribution to the costs of childcare in the years from 2004 to 2008 resulted in an approximately 10% increase in the use of formal childcare facilities and a 5% increase in the supply of labour by mothers as measured in hours. 

Cost-benefit analyses 

• The costs and benefits of childcare. The research revealed that a drastic reduction of the current childcare subsidies results in a decrease in women's labour participation rate and in turn results in a decline in the overall level of prosperity. Targeted investments in the quality of childcare have beneficial effects: the level of children's education is improved, in turn resulting in higher production levels and a higher overall level of prosperity. 
• The costs and benefits of welfare work and social services. This research was based on cost-benefit analyses of youth work, senior citizens work and debt counseling projects. 
• The costs and benefits of self-employed persons without personnel. We examined the added value self-employed persons without personnel offer to the Dutch economy. 
• The costs and benefits of school nutritional care for chronically-ill children. This research examined whether the benefits offered by optimum school nutritional care for chronically ill children are greater than the concomitant costs. 
• The costs of and results achieved by rehabilitation. Data from Statistics Netherlands, Divosa (the Dutch national association of social services managers) and UWV (the social security administration agency) about rehabilitation programmes were studied to provide an insight into the costs and benefits of rehabilitation processes initiated by municipalities and the UWV in 2008.