Noailly, J., Webbink, D. and Jacobs, B. (2011). Should the government stimulate enrolment in science and engineering studies? Applied Economics Letters, 18(4):371--375.

In many countries there is a deep concern about shortages of Science and Engineering workers (S\&E). This article focuses on the effectiveness of policies aimed at stimulating the supply of S\&E workers in the Netherlands. Despite the 'common wisdom' of severe and increasing shortages, we do not find evidence for a tight labour market of S\&E workers. Instead, the data suggest that S\&E workers have become less scarce since 1996. Stimulating enrolment in S\&E studies may not be an effective policy for increasing R\&D activity in the Netherlands because the majority of Dutch S\&E freshmen do not end up working in R\&D. They drop out during their S\&E study or choose other jobs. In addition, the internationalization of the market for S\&E workers tends to counter the effects of supply-side policies because the growing supply of foreign S\&E graduates puts downward pressure on wages. As a result, demand-side policies may be more effective because they are directly targeted at fostering R\&D.