The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Rostock awarded an Honorary Doctorate to Prof. Axel Börsch-Supan, PhD, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy. Börsch-Supan, who heads the Institute's Social Policy Department, the Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA), received the award for his groundbreaking research on economic issues of demographic change. The multidisciplinary EU study SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe), which he coordinates and which is used by thousands of scientists worldwide, is of particular importance for research, the university stated. The laudatio was held by Prof. Dr. Alexander Ludwig of the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Targeting is an important aim for social policy. A new MEA Discussion Paper reflects in three case studies typical shortcomings in the targeting design of pension reforms in Germany. The first case study examines how well work disability and the receipt of disability insurance match. In the second example, the researchers investigated the question of whether the 2014 introduction of a new pathway of early retirement without actuarial adjustments reached the intended target population. The third case study looks at the much discussed supplemental pension benefit for households at risk of poverty. Read more: MEA Discussion Paper 04-2019: Targets missed: Three case studies exploiting the linked SHARE-RV data

Prof. Dr. Tabea Bucher-Koenen, former staff member at the Max-Planck-Institute for Social Law and Social Policy and until the beginning of this year head of the research unit “Old-Age Provision and Social Policy” of the Social Policy Department (MEA), has accepted a call from the University of Mannheim. She takes over the professorship for Financial Markets and Business Administration. The economist, who since January 2019 has been leading the research department for “International Finance and Financial Management” at the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, will strive to deepen the collaboration between the two institutions: ,,The combination of policy-oriented empirical economic research at ZEW with the expertise of a university with a strong economic profile offers the best prerequisites for pursuing my research agenda on issues relevant to economic policy in a targeted manner.” Tabea Bucher-Koenen at the ZEW

The Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy is now a member institution of the European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR). The purpose of the ECSR is to promote theory-driven empirical research in sociology in Europe, particularly by encouraging cooperation between research centres. The ECSR organizes yearly conferences and annual graduate schools. Moreover, it offers visitor grants for graduate students and awards a prize for the best PhD thesis among candidates from the ECSR member institutes every year. ECSR website

The SHARE Release 7.0.0 includes the first release of wave 7 data. Eight new countries joined SHARE in wave 7: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Romania and Slovakia. The data collection in wave 7 focused on respondents’ life histories (SHARELIFE). The new SHARE Release 7.0.0 comes with a compatible update of all previous SHARE waves (1-6). We also provide an updated version of the Job Episodes Panel that comprises SHARELIFE respondents of wave 3 and wave 7. An updated version is also available for easySHARE, our dataset for student training and for researchers with little experience in quantitative analyses of complex survey data. Please, find all information about data access and data documentation on the SHARE homepage . Additionally, there is already a summary of the first results from waves 6 and 7 available, as well as a documentation on the methodology of wave 7 .

Für ihre Doktorarbeit erhielt Dr. Felizia Hanemann vom Max-Planck-Institut für Sozialrecht und Sozialpolitik die Otto-Hahn-Medaille der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Die Auszeichnung würdigt herausragende Leistungen von NachwuchswissenschaftlerInnen. In ihrer Dissertation untersuchte Hanemann, wie sich der Übergang vom Arbeitsmarkt in den Ruhestand in verschiedenen europäischen Ländern gestaltet. Dabei betrachtete sie insbesondere den Zusammenhang zwischen Arbeitsmarktinaktivität und Gesundheit unter Berücksichtigung institutioneller, berufsbezogener und sozialer Faktoren. Zum Profil