In a comparative framework, the paper uses a recently observed shift away from cash transfers and towards the provision of rehabilitation services to identify barriers to welfare policy reform. The analysis relies on the assumption that some European welfare regimes have a similar initial...

Can autocratic governments gain support by implementing a welfare reform and a repressive law? This paper studies a famous case - Bismarck's policies of social insurance and the antisocialist law in late 19th century Germany. The socialist party, I find, increases its vote share in...

Inspired by Fröhlich and Oppenheimer (1990), an experimental survey in the lab was designed to find out if preferences for three different redistribution schemes differ under a veil of ignorance. The three schemes are a stylized version of the status quo German welfare state (A), a control...