Economists and demographers have long argued that fertility differs by income (differential fertility), and that social security creates incentives for people to rear fewer children. Does the effect of social security on fertility differ by income? How does social security change the...

In Deutschland werden in jüngster Zeit immer häufiger amerikanische Verhältnisse im Umgang mit Sozialhilfeempfängern gefordert. Wie sieht die amerikanische Sozialhilfepolitik tatsächlich aus? Welche Lehren könnte man für Deutschland ziehen?

This paper examines to what extent the classification of the American welfare state as "residual" squares with the empirical facts. Section I describes key features of American social policy developments. The U.S. system is clearly dominated by public provisions for welfare among which social...

In most OECD countries the gap between rich and poor has widened over the past decades. This paper analyzes whether and to what extent taxes and social transfers have contributed to this trend. Has the redistributive power of different social programs changed over time? The paper contributes to...

While all nations value low poverty, high levels of economic self-reliance, and equality of opportunity for younger persons, they differ dramatically in the extent to which they reach these goals. Most nations have remarkable similarities in the sources of social concern within each nation -...

Im Gefolge der Finanzmarkt- und Wirtschaftskrise hat sich in den USA die Arbeitsmarktlage in einem Ausmaß verschlechtert, das im amerikanischen Sozialsystem wegen der stärkeren Eigenverantwortung nicht vorgesehen ist. Um die krisenbedingten Einkommenslücken zu verringern, hat der Kongress im...

Radical employment, household structure and stability transformations have created new tensions on the welfare state front, whose social programs were constructed in an era with a wholly different risk profile. Rowntree's poverty cycle clearly exemplifies the postwar picture of an exceptional...