October 09, 2013 | Defo News

All based on pure calculation?

The new issue (Nr. 3/2013) of "Demografische Forschung Aus Erster Hand", the popular science newsletter with latest research results from demography, has been released. (The Newsletter is available in German only.)

Topics of the 3/2013 issue:

The poor die earlier
Low-income pensioners have a lower life expectancy.
Life expectancy in Germany has been rising for many years – but with the gains not equally shared by all social classes. In 2008, for example, 65-year olds enjoying a high retirement income could expect to live for another 20 years. Peers living on a very low pension, by contrast, had a remaining life expectancy of not even 15 years.

All based on pure calculation?
Material considerations are often one of the motives behind fathers taking parental leave
The 2007 reform of parental leave aimed, among other things, to provide fathers with incentives to become more actively engaged in parenting (lit.: looking after their offspring]. Sociologist Heike Trappe of the University of Rostock has now looked for the first time ever at the question of what moves men to take parental leave for more than just two months.

Patience required to see family policy effects
The effects on birth rates can only be measured over the long term
The number of places at day nurseries for children under age 3 has been increasing, and the rate of childcare provision in Germany has doubled within 5 years. But because the birth rate has remained constant over the same period, the impact of child daycare expansion has often been called into question. Wrongly so, says Martin Bujard of the Federal Institute of Population Research. He calls for more patience.

"Demografische Forschung Aus Erster Hand" is a joint publication of the Max Planck Institute for demographic Research (MPIDR), the Rostocker Zentrum zur Erforschung des Demografischen Wandels (RZ), the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID), the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital and the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). The newsletter is released four times a year and is available electronically and as a printed version and is free of charge.

All past issues are available online on the Newsletter website. On the website you also have the possibility to subscribe to the Newsletter to get informed about the release of the new issues or to receive the printed versions by mail.