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K LOOSTERMAN RC (1996) Double Dutch: polarization trends in Amsterdam and Rotterdam after 1980, Reg. Studies 30, 467–476. The current changes in the economic base of advanced cities–ie the expansion of producer and consumer services on the one hand, and the contraction of manufacturing on the other–are supposed to generate a notable polarization among the urban workforces. Here, this polarization thesis is tested for the two largest Dutch cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It is shown that although polarization has indeed occurred, this thesis fails to identify correctly the driving forces behind this polarization. Postindustrial polarization is not so much a product of changes in the sectoral composition as of shifts in the earnings distribution within these sectors.