T.H. Marshall's reputation as an historian, social theorist, and practical interpreter of ideas about citizenship and welfare rights has probably never been higher than at the present time. Whether or not T. H. Marshall was "right" or "wrong" in his analysis of the questions raised in...

The paper investigates paid work beyond retirement age in Germany and the UK. This comprises a combination of work, payments from a pension (or several pensions) and old age which is counter to the assumed finality of retirement and the corresponding standardised passage from end of work into...

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...

Seit einigen Jahren steht "die Krise" (der Finanzmärkte, des Euro, der Staatsschulden) im Zentrum der öffentlichen Diskussion. Waren die zunächst eingetretenen (kurzfristigen) Effekte für die deutsche Wirtschaft und die Alterssicherungssysteme - insbesondere im Vergleich zu vielen anderen...

Labor market policies have been re-configured during the "activation turn" in labor market policy-making in the 1990s. This included restricting behavioral requirements for job seekers and benefit claimants, but also improving services (e.g. better placement services). In a nutshell, the "rights...

The Country Reports on the State of Social Policy Research are published from time to time in the Working Paper Series of the Center for Social Policy. An experienced scientist offers an overview of the central institutions and persons in comparative and national social policy research in his or...

Public policy shapes the lives of individuals, and even more so if they depend on state support. But to what extent can well-being differences between individuals living in different European states be traced back to the specific national public policy designs? This paper tests the intervening...

Die Finanzmarktkrise von 2008 und in deren Gefolge die "Große Rezession" sowie Staatsschuldenkrisen in verschiedenen EU-Ländern haben einschneidende Reformen der Alterssicherungssysteme ausgelöst, die die Finanzierung der Renten kurz- und langfristig sicherstellen, fiskalischen...

Aufgrund bestehender und sich weiter verstärkender Altersarmut steht der Reformbedarf der Leistungsseite der Gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung (GRV) im Zentrum der wissenschaftlichen und politischen Diskussion. Im Fokus stehen dabei Personen mit lückenhaften Erwerbsbiographien und niedrigen...