In seinem „Beitragskinderurteil“ vom 3.4.2001 hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht eine verfassungswidrige Benachteiligung von Familien in der sozialen Pflegeversicherung festgestellt und zugleich den Gesetzgeber verpflichtet, bis Ende 2004 einen Ausgleich der Benachteiligung „innerhalb dieses...

Soziale Sicherung gehört in der Europäischen Union zwar zu den primär nationalstaatlichen Aufgaben, doch gehen von der europäischen Ebene vielfältige Einflüsse aus, von Entscheidungen der Kommission, im Ministerrat oder durch den Europäischen Gerichtshof wie auch allgemein durch direkt...

The empirical relationship between income and longevity has been addressed by a large number of studies, but most were confined to men. In particular, administrative data from public pension systems are less reliable for women because of the loose relationship between own earnings and household...

In several OECD countries, public pay-as-you-go financed pension systems have undergone major reforms in which future retirement benefit promises have been scaled down. A consequence of these reforms is that especially in countries with a tight tax-benefit linkage, the retirement benefit claims...

It is still an open question whether increasing life expectancy as such is causing higher health care expenditures (HCE) in a population. According to the "red herring" hypothesis, the positive correlation between age and HCE is exclusively due to the fact that mortality rises with age and a...