Social insurance and other arrangements for funding health-care benefits often establish long-term relationships, effectively providing insurance against lasting changes in an individual's health status, engaging in burden-smoothing over the life cycle, and entailing additional elements of...

Cover -- Contents -- Series Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Contributors -- 1 Fertility and Public Policy -- 2 The Economics of the Family and Its Policy Implications -- 3 Low Fertility and Population Aging in Germany and Japan -- 4 Effects of Public Policies and Labor Market on the Fertility of...

Public pay-as-you-go pensions still form the dominant pillar of old-age provision in Germany. This is in marked contrast to the situation in Anglo-Saxon countries. It has advantages if labour markets are strong, e.g., following a quick recovery from the Great Recession. It has disadvantages, as...