The aggregate fiscal burden of all family-supporting fiscal programs in Germany amounts to 321.1 bill. DM in 2000 and to 328.1 bill. DM in 2001. These amounts increase to 345.0 bill. DM (353.4 bill. DM) if payments for educational support and expenditures to universities for educational purposes...

This paper provides an overview of the sequential shift towards activating labour market and social policy in Germany. It not only shows the changes in the instruments of active and passives labour market policies but also analyzes the implications of this change for the political economy, the...

Ziel der Arbeit ist die bisher fehlende versicherungsökonomische Fundierung in der Argumentation über die Privatisierung der Arbeitslosenversicherung. Anders als in bisherigen Ansätzen werden die Begründungen gegen eine Privatisierung in eine versicherungstechnische und eine sozialpolitische...

The primary purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the papers within the economics literature that have examined the questions of immigrant welfare use and the responsiveness of immigrants to the incentives created by welfare systems. While our focus is largely on papers looking at the...

In this paper, we explore the impact of social policies and labour market characteristics on women's decisions regarding work and childbearing, using data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). We estimate the two decisions jointly and, in addition to personal characteristics,...

Negative perceptions about migrants in Europe, the Continent with the largest social policy programmes, are driven by concerns that foreigners are a net fiscal burden. Paradoxically instruments of social inclusion are becoming a weapon of mass exclusion. Increasing concerns of public opinion are...

Child care subsidies are an important part of federal and state efforts to move welfare recipients into employment. One of the criticisms of the current subsidy system, however, is that it overemphasizes work and does little to encourage parents to purchase high-quality child care. Consequently,...

This brief paper draws attention to molecular genetic research which may provide a new dimension to our understanding of how socioeconomic outcomes are generated. In particular, we provide an overview of the recently emerging evidence of gene-environment interaction effects. This literature...