The present economic crisis comes against the background of decades of policy changesthat have generally weakened the capacity of social safety nets to offer citizens withadequate resources for financial survival when labour markets fail to do so. Building on datafor 24 European Union countries,...

This study analyses the development of the economic well-being of the elderly in Swedensince 1990 - a period characterized by increased influence from the financial market andextreme economic events - using data from the Household Income Survey. The elderly werenot isolated as pensions were cut,...

This paper presents an analysis of housing conditions amongst the British urban workingclass in 1904, using a re-discovered survey.1 We investigate overcrowding and we find majorregional differences...

Pay-as-you-go pension programs can help to share risk amongst generations.While a wage-indexed pension program is best suited to share labor income risk,I show that the combination of stochastic labor income and stochastic populationgrowth may reduce the possibilities for intergenerational risk...