Now showing 1 - 10 of 19
  • Publication
    Welfare User Roles in a Conservative Welfare State. Are Germans Citizens, Consumers or Co-producers?
    (Taylor and Francis, 2015-12-21) ; ;
    Many welfare states have embraced choice and market mechanisms since the 1990s. With respect to welfare users, it has been argued that this led to a change from citizens to consumers. This paper challenges this observation and discusses changes of welfare user roles in the German welfare state. The main argument rests on the assumption that user roles are much more complex and include claimants and co-producers in addition to citizens and consumers. Based on this heuristic model of multiple user roles, empirical evidence for user roles in pension insurance, health care and schools is presented. Indeed, we observe a shift towards consumers in many fields of welfare provision, but German users are still largely addressed as claimants and citizens. Moreover, they are acting as active co-producers, entitled claimants, subversive consumers and needy patients.
      588Scopus© Citations 12
  • Publication
    Ireland most stringent Covid restrictions in EU since January: Way out of lockdown has to keep on prioritising children’s education
    (Trinity College Dublin. COVID-19 Law and Human Rights Observatory, 2021-05-06) ;
    Despite the vaccine rollout, governments across the globe still grapple with containing the Covid infections, keeping hospitalisations down and preventing a surge in fatalities. Since last spring, a group of researchers and volunteers, led by Oxford University, have tracked the multiple government restrictions to citizens, businesses and society at large in almost every part of the world. Last week we have launched the UCD Covid Compared dashboard – in short UCD CoCo – to easily access the underlying data of these Covid policy responses and make the tremendous work of the Oxford team more accessible to everyone through simple colour-coded tables and graphs. Following the third lockdown and opening up of Ireland in April, the obvious question is how strict were Ireland’s rules compared to other EU countries? Out of 42 countries, Ireland had the 3rd most stringent restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic. Only Italy and the UK had enacted tougher rules since March 2020. Broken down by some key indicators, Ireland had closed workplaces and businesses much longer and tougher than any other European country. Similarly, on public transport restrictions Ireland is within the top 5 and for stay-at-home requirements and school closures within the top 10. Most noticeable is that Ireland’s rules on international travel were very lax throughout 2020 and were only tightened after the Christmas travel debacle.
      123
  • Publication
    Geographies of Assets and Debt
    In this paper we focus on the geographies of individual and household debt. Rising household debt has become an issue of increased concern across many nations. We consider two important contributing factors to this rise in debt; first, the global rise in financial services and institutions seeking to expand their market share of consumer credit. Second, the dismantling of public welfare provision and the shift towards individualization and personal asset-building.
      609
  • Publication
    Herausforderungen der Rentenpolitik
    (Barbara Budrich Publishers, 2009)
    Wenn wir uns also die zentrale sozialpolitische Relevanz des Rentensys- tems vergegenwärtigen, hängt die Zukunft des Sozialstaat es in großen Teilen von der Reformfähigkeit und Zukunftstauglichkeit de r Alterssicherung ab. Auf den folgenden Seiten werden deshalb die Problem lagen und gesell- schaftlichen Veränderungen aus den Beiträgen des ersten Teils aufgegriffen (siehe Beiträge Vester und Schroeder in diesem Band). Wel cher Wandel ist besonders für Rentensysteme relevant? Welches Rentensy stem ist von den Veränderungen stärker betroffen? Im ersten Teil werde n deshalb zunächst verschiedene Rentensysteme diskutiert. Existierende Fi nanzierungsmodelle werden vorgestellt und in ein Fünf-Säulen-Modell integriert. Jede Säule ist mit anderen Problemen konfrontiert und hat verschie dene Reformoptionen.
      665
  • Publication
    Ireland’s paternity leave: sluggish benefit take-up and occupational inequalities
    (Taylor and Francis, 2023)
    Ireland used to be a laggard in implementing modern fatherhood policies compared to its European neighbours. In 2016, it was one of the last EU countries to introduce paid paternity leave and three years later parental leave. These reforms indicate that Ireland is moving away from the US model of fatherhood to a social investment state closer to the Swedish model of shared parenthood. With the introduction of Paternity Benefit the Irish government aimed to achieve a take-up of about 46–61%, which is used as a yardstick to evaluate its success. First, this article assesses paternity leave take-up comprehensively through four different rates based on administrative and aggregate data. Overall, take-up had been increasing initially, but levelled already after four years at the lower government target. This is puzzling as countries with similar reforms reported a constant increase and higher take-up over time. Second, drivers for the low take-up are discussed. Specifically, occupational and class inequalities are key factors as only 55 percent of the male workforce have access to occupational top-ups in addition to the relatively low statutory benefit. Without increasing benefit generosity, take-up will stabilize at the rather modest levels in comparison to other European welfare states.
      6
  • Publication
    How large families fare in Germany: Examining child poverty risks and policy solutions
    Historically, researchers and policymakers alike recognized the risk of poverty among large families, but family size is often neglected in the contemporary literature. This article revives an examination of the connections between family size and poverty risk for children with a focus on Germany. We take a child-centered perspective by analyzing a sample of 13–14 year-old children from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). First, we provide a detailed overview of the welfare and tax policies aimed at large families in Germany. Next, we estimate the poverty risk and prevalence for children in large families (looking at families with 3+ and 4+ children). Finally, we discuss how the policy and socio-economic context interacts with the risk of poverty. We identify that the means-tested social assistance scheme penalizes large families, while the child benefit would only acknowledge higher need of middle-income families with three or more children.
      6Scopus© Citations 1
  • Publication
    What Parents Want: A Needs Assessment in Dublin South City
    (One Family; Tusla - Child and Family Agency; University College Dublin, 2018-10-01) ;
    This report presents the findings on research on family-related services in Dublin with a specific focus on Dublin South City (DSC). The focus of the research concerns awareness of, perceived need for as well as reported usage of these services. For this report parents were interviewed in focus groups in Dublin South City and a city-wide online survey was conducted.
      536
  • Publication
    Mainstreamkonvergenz und Geschlechterdifferenz. Die deutsche und schwedische Rentenreform im Vergleich
    (Lucius and Lucius Verlagsgesellschaft, 2007)
    Die aktuellen Veränderungen der Rentensysteme wurden als konvergente Entwicklungen beschrieben, wobei nur der Wandel in den Bereichen Indexierung, Regelaltersgrenze oder die Schaffung einer kapitalgedeckten Altersvorsorge untersucht wurde. Der Wandel erscheint aber in einem anderen Licht, wenn systematisch Geschlechterunterschiede in die Analyse einbezogen werden. In dem Aufsatz werden die Rentenreformen in Deutschland (2001) und Schweden (1998) mit einem Fokus auf deren Geschlechterregime verglichen, dabei werden vier Vergleichsdimensionen (Stratifizierung, Autonomer Haushalt, Anerkennung und Externalisierung von Erziehungsarbeit und Auszahlung und Erwerb der Leistungsberechtigung) verwendet. Der Vergleich zeigt, dass die KonvergenzHypothese nur auf die Regelungen zutrifft, die keinen Einfluss auf die Geschlechterregime haben. Die Geschlechterregime Deutschlands und Schwedens bleiben im Gegenteil überaus stabil, sodass von einer konvergenten Stabilität gesprochen werden kann. Starke Pfadabhängigkeiten prägen damit Veränderungen im Bereich der geschlechterrelevanten Rentenregelungen.
      203
  • Publication
    Editorial: Leistungsempfänger, Bürger oder Kunden? Nutzer in der Sozialpolitik
    Die Reformen des deutschen Sozialstaats der letzten beiden Jahrzehnte stellen Bürgerinnen und Bürger vor neue Anforderungen: Auf Wohlfahrtsmärkten sollen sie als Konsumenten agieren, Versicherte können zwischen verschiedenen öffentlichen, gemeinnützigen oder privatwirtschaftlichen Leistungserbringern wählen, Beschäftigte sollen eigenverantwortlich ihre soziale Sicherung gestalten, Arbeitsuchende müssen aktiv an ihrer Wiedereingliederung ins Erwerbsleben mitarbeiten.
      213
  • Publication
    Wahlfreiheit und Nutzerrollen im deutschen Bildungssystem
    (WSI Mitteilungen, 2012-03)
    The article examines the choice architecture in the German education system and how parents and pupils act as welfare clients, citizens, co-producers or consumers. A state-of-the-art literature review depicts the loopholes of choice and the user behavior in the public education system. The empirical study Focuses on the user roles in the private education market. Based on administrative and PISA 2009 data, the article shows did parents act increasingly as consumers and co-producers if Their children are enrolled at a private school. Parents are less inclined to participate as citizens in the school board of private schools. More over, the likelihood to attend at a private school is growing with the cultural and economic capital of the parents. This user behavior leads to social segregation in the education market. The article Concludes to factor in the changed user behavior in future policy Reforms.
      367