Abstract
In the period between 2000 and 2012, Germany made two major directional changes in its policies regarding family, labor market, and social assistance. The demographic and economic factors that drove these changes were (1) the low fertility rates of women in Germany; (2) the related demographic consequence of the aging of the population, together with real declines in the population; and (3) high levels of unemployment that were viewed as economically unsustainable. As a result of these trends, the primary goal pursued by Germany was to attempt to increase the percentage of persons within the middle of the age distribution who are economically active. One set of policies implemented to achieve this goal included expansions of parental leave and benefits, increases in the availability of childcare, and the implementation of long-term care insurance. A second set of policies resulted in retrenchments in the generosity of the level of unemployment benefits and social assistance. This chapter describes the details of these forces, the changes in the policies, and the families who gained and who lost.
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Trzcinski, E., Camp, J.K. (2014). Family Policy in Germany. In: Robila, M. (eds) Handbook of Family Policies Across the Globe. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6771-7_10
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