The achievement of individual well-being while guaranteeing a sustainable development path represents an important objective of a socio-ecological transition. This objective indicates that targets referring to the economic, social and environmental dimensions are taken into account...

Numerous publications about disasters are implying that disaster vulnerability is growing. The main reasons given for this are growing populations, climate change and increasing poverty. However, maybe the current perception of vulnerability to disasters rests primarily on a perspective focusing...

Die Neubau-Großsiedlungen stellen einen bedeutsamen Teil der Wohnungsversorgung in den großen Städten der neuen Bundesländer dar. Gleichzeitig sind sowohl Bestand und Zusammensetzung der Wohnbevölkerung als auch die Funktionen dieser Siedlungen in der sozialräumlichen Arbeitsteilung der...

To assess whether and when the equation economic growth = better life holds, it is necessary to understand what human motivations drive the economic growth process. The preference subjectivism of canonical welfare economics is of little help here as it treats the motivations underlying...

Since 1950 the sources of the gains from marriage have changed radically. As the educational attainment of women overtook and surpassed that of men and the ratio of men's to women's wage rates fell, traditional patterns of gender specialization in work weakened. The primary source of the gains...

Recent developments in society have generated misalignment between the welfare state and socio-economic conditions and preferences. This paper emphasis developments in the labor market and the structure, stability and preferences of the family, as well as macroeconomic changes. The latter...

This study assesses whether recent changes in family structure and female employment patterns have altered the distribution of income in some countries. Extant literature on this topic reaches inconsistent conclusions and overwhelmingly focuses on the United States. To address these...

This paper updates and extends my earlier work, published in the Journal of Economic Issues, on how the middle class fares throughout the world. My 2007 paper provided a definition of the middle class as well as estimates of the size of the middle class in several nations. It argued that the...