The projects on this page give a flavour of some of the research areas the ECORYS Research Programme is currently funding.

• Barriers to sustainable growth in developing countries: Tax Policy
• Housing restructuring and neighbourhood renewal in Europe
• City Living - panacea of anathema of urban renaissance
• Integrating quality of life measurements into social cost benefit analysis
• Innovation of European evaluation methodologies
• Achieving Sustainable Development in Rural Areas

Barriers to sustainable growth in developing countries: Tax Policy

Bjorn Volkerink (ECORYS NL) has kicked off a project ECORYS concerned with Tax Policy in sub Saharan Africa. Bjorn and colleagues in ECORYS NL have been active in the field of tax policy in developing countries over a number of years. The ERP project gives them the opportunity to develop an edge for ECORYS in this field of work.

The project proposals explains that a main driver for technical assistance projects in Tax Policy is the loss of revenue associated with increasing regional integration, World Trade Organisation accession and other factors. This loss in government revenue is not a unique phenomenon as more and more countries enter free trade areas. Not only does regional integration lead to a direct loss of tariff revenue, it also increases incentives for tax competition within the customs union. A large number of countries (especially developing countries) therefore face the same problem – and a question that this project will try to address: what is most cost-effective and (economically) efficient way to raise sufficient domestic (tax) revenues without sacrificing too much on equity?

This project will address the following questions:

• What are the consequences for the tax system of regional/international integration?
• What are best practices in the field of excises, VAT, CIT, etc.?
• How could best practices be integrated in existing tax systems?

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Housing restructuring and neighbourhood renewal in Europe

This programme of research will identify housing policy issues across the European Union as well as in Bulgaria and Romania. It will produce a series of country based policy briefings and make connections between those aspects of market restructuring and neighbourhood renewal experienced in different parts of Europe.  A series of case studies will look in more detail at lessons which can be learned and transferable experience.

Housing policy is a unifying force for the EU. The detail changes between member states but the desire/obligation to provide quality housing in sufficient quantity, in the right location, is a concern for all governments. Today's housing markets are the legacy of a wide range of past policies and trends although the need to build quickly and cheaply in the immediate post-war era was a common strand across Europe. Those policies have contributed to social problems in many EU cities.

For the future, housing stock issues need to be addressed, but housing markets never remain static and demographic changes, migration, changing tastes, smaller households are all contributing to changes in demand, significantly more in some EU cities but less where economic change has led to population decline.

Despite a certain commonality of issues there is relatively little knowledge sharing or cross border policies. Housing has been seen as a national issue even if the consequences of housing policies or the factors that influence housing policies cut across boundaries.

The ECORYS Research Programme provides an opportunity to bring together information on housing policy across the EU, make links to other policy areas covered by the ERP (especially migration) , and explore the possibilities of transferring experience and solutions between EU member states. 

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City Living - panacea of anathema of urban renaissance

The dynamic urban renaissance experienced by cities in the Midlands and North of England over the last 10 years has been inextricably linked with the growth of city living: 

"In the late 1980s, less than 1,000 people lived in the centre of Manchester. In 2005, the figure was at least 15,000. In 2001, Liverpool’s city centre population was 13,500, up from just 8,000 ten years earlier.  Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield, Nottingham, Newcastle and Glasgow have all experienced similar, rapid growth" . 

However, there is growing recognition that city living may not be solving the long term trend of suburbanisation and urban-rural shift, largely because city living apartments are too small for people to 'mature into'.  The most popular types of housing continues to be detached and semi-detached homes in suburban and semi-rural locations : 

"People still arrive in big cities as young singles, and leave as older families"  

The stark juxtaposition of thriving city centres with their immediately adjacent inner suburban neighbourhoods (which continue to be characterised by high levels of deprivation and social exclusion) brings into question the effectiveness of city living in bringing about sustainable urban renaissance.  In response, Local Authorities are beginning to encourage redevelopment of the inner suburbs by fostering approaches which take maximum advantage of proximity to our city centres, whilst at the same time providing family homes for new families moving from city living apartments . 

This comparative study will develop the growing policy debate around the effectiveness of city centre living in facilitating sustainable urban renaissance.  The study will focus on current residents of city living apartments in Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds - their socio-economic characteristics, housing history and future moving intentions - and the effect of city living on medium and long-distance migration patterns. 

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Integrating quality of life measurements into social cost benefit analysis

The research programme “measuring the immeasurable” aims to broaden Cost Benefit Analysis studies to fields outside infrastructure and real estate, such as social and environmental policies and large city policies.

The project aims to develop:

• a knowledge base and system for quantification and monetarisation of a range of
  quality of life indicators for themes relating to health, safety, work, physical environment, social participation, education etc.
• methodology to include hitherto immeasurable economic values and which permits
  an effective integration of the relevant quality of life indicators into welfare in socioeconomic Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). 

The expected outputs of the research project will include:

• a literature review of current practices related to this theme and a summary of the relevant material and the gaps that are missing within the field (a first outline is included in this proposal).
• a non-exhaustive list of main relevant indicators for quantification of quality of life
• a first set of key figures for quality of life indicators in 2 focused fields of policy intervention (social policies)
• suggestions for a sound way of monetarisation of quality of life indicators into welfare (in a broad sense) for these 2 social policy interventions
• First application of technique in CBA for 2 social policy interventions
  a first set of key figures for the monetarisation of quality life indicators

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Innovation of European evaluation methodologies

This project aims to increase the collective knowledge, understanding and skills set regarding evaluations within the ECORYS Group in order to contribute to higher client satisfaction, spin-off effects to new clients and constantly improving ECORYS contribution;

The key research questions are:

1. What are the main factors determining the gap between evaluation theory and practice? What are the factors at the demand side and what are the factors at the supply side?
2. What are the main characteristics of the evaluation work of the ECORYS Group, in terms of types of evaluations, different clients, market share, types of methodologies, etc.?
3. What are the innovative methodologies and approaches used in the ECORYS Group? Are these methodologies applicable in different types of evaluations? Are these methodologies sufficiently known?
4. What recent insights from the evaluation literature could we integrate in our ECORYS Group evaluation work?
5. How can the evaluation work of the ECORYS Group be further improved? 

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Achieving Sustainable Development in Rural Areas

The research project will seek to examine the UK policy landscape as it currently exists and is currently evolving to identify inconsistencies in approach towards achieving twin governmental goals of sustainable development and sustainable rural communities: Once these inconsistencies have been identified and quantified in terms of their significance at a practical level, the team will work to develop a framework to enable these inconsistencies to be overcome for the benefit of both goals. The key drivers for this work have been the publication in 2006 of the report of the Affordable Rural housing Commission and the government's (CLG/Defra) response to this, alongside the publication of the consultation document PPS: Planning and Climate Change – supplement to PPS1 (CLG).

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