New data makes it possible to measure the evolution of social program generosity over the roughly three decades since the affluent democracies entered the "era of austerity." Compared with plausible expectations derived from power resource theory, as well as prior historical experience, these...

This article reflects on the important lecture "The Welfare State Over the Very Long Run", delivered by Paul Pierson, at the London School of Economics on 8 November 2010, on the occasion of the launch of Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State. Pierson's explanation for what he sees as the...

We simulate a two-sectoral, three-period OLG-model with endogenous fertility and endogenous education. Parents receive utility from quantity and quality (education) of their offspring, generating a trade-off between the former and the latter. Since education governs efficiency in production,...

Die Finanzierung der staatlichen Alterssicherungssysteme, die in allen Mitgliedsländern der Europäischen Union zum Kern der Systeme der sozialen Sicherung gehören, rückt immer mehr in den Mittelpunkt sozialpolitischer Diskussionen. Hierzu tragen drei Faktoren bei:Erstens, die für alle...