Life Course Risks in Germany and the USA

In the United States the financial crisis led to significant upheaval: Unemployment is at a high. In Germany too, in spite of positive economic activity, only temporary or part-time jobs are being created. What does this mean in concrete terms for people in both countries? The Life Course Risks Project at WZB analyses “The Economic Consequences of Key Life Risks in Germany and the US and Their Evolution since the 1980s”.

One topic is the transformation of the welfare state in both countries and the question whether social protection of key life risks are weakened. Martin Ehlert describes in his Discussion Paper “Shifted labor market risks? The changing economic consequences of job loss in the United States and West Germany” how institutional changes in the welfare state influence income mobility around job loss. He has determined that American unemployed are much more strongly affected by the retreat of the welfare state than Germans.

Results are available here.