Families produce health, but changing family structures are also held responsible for negative health outcomes in today’s societies. In this paper we analyse how the health of young children in Germany may change when parents separate. Data from the GSOEP show that children living in...

Over the 1990-2000 decade happiness in China plummeted despite massive improvement in material living standards. This finding contradicts the notion that income growth at low living standards leads to gains, not losses, in happiness. We explain this puzzle by drawing on a specific version of...

Die demografische Vergreisung unserer Gesellschaft lenkt das öffentliche Interesse zunehmend auch auf Fragen der Altersversorgung und des Umgangs mit alten Menschen. Hilke Brockmann untersucht die soziale Realität, die sich hinter den statistischen Werten verbirgt. In Quer- und...

Does the gender of immigrants affect the subjective well-being of natives? Our analysis is based on representative data from Germany and Catalonia (Spain). Both regions represent two most-different EU cases in terms of macroeconomic context, political mobilisation, and typology of migrants....

Recent trends in German life expectancy show a considerable increase. Most of this increase has resulted from decreasing mortality at older ages. Patterns of oldest old mortality (ages 80+) differed significantly between men and women as well as between East and West Germany. While West German...

Forecasts are always wrong. Still, they paint potential future scenarios and provide a platform for policy decisions today. This is what gives forecast such a high salience in political debates about the effects of population aging. The paper aims at gauging the effect of population aging on...

The consequences of population ageing for the health care system and health care costs may be less severe than is commonly assumed. Hospital discharge data from Germany’s largest health insurer (AOK) show that the care of patients during their last year of life is less costly if they die at an...

Most studies dealing with the impact of marriage on mortality treat being married as a once-and-for-all status. However, multiple life changes in marital status characterize the modern life course. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the timing of these changes affect mortality in...

Recent trends in German life expectancy show a considerable increase. Most of this increase has resulted from decreasing mortality at older ages. Patterns of oldest old mortality (ages 80+) differed significantly between men and women as well as between East and West Germany. While West German...