Policy Insights

To reconcile work and family is to improve gender and socioeconomic equality. This means the type of intervention will be just as important as its generosity. Take cash benefits for care services. Intended to provide families with flexibility, evidence suggests they subtly incentivise families to fall back on traditional divisions of household labour. Given cash, families, especially poorer families, tend to engage in more home care for their children.

by Helga de Valk and Valeria Bordone As our societies age, adult sons and daughters must increasingly balance their own lives with the needs of their ageing parents. They must reconcile the preferences of their parents with their institutional setting—that junction between policies and cultural expectations. A quick look at our own lives, and it’s easy to see that always making the “right” decisions can quickly get complicated for anyone.

by Harald Wilkoszewski, Elke Loichinger, and Patrick I. Dick  

by Isabella Buber-Ennser and Judith Kohlenberger We knew that migrants tend to be healthier, more open and better educated than the average citizen of the country they leave behind. What we didn’t expect is that this positive selection bias would be so pronounced among the refugees arriving during the most intense months of Europe’s refugee crisis.

by Athina Vlachantoni Taking regular care of ageing parents, vulnerable siblings or infirm spouses is an increasingly common experience in our ageing societies.

by Patrick I. Dick "Simply put, the more time that fathers can spend with their babies, the better. It’s a good thing for dads, for families, and for society."

Andreu Domingo Valls, Member of the Population Europe Council of Advisors, was awarded with the City of Barcelona prize last year.

In his recent book Overheating: An Anthro­pology of Accelerated Change, anthropolo­gist T. H. Eriksen astutely applies thermo­dynamic concepts to explain the economic, environmental, and identity challenges endemic to globalization that are endan­gering social reproduction. The point of friction, he argues, is a matter of scale: The challenges are global in scope but manifest at the local level. Eriksen points to overpopulation, climate change, and the accelerated production of residue—both in terms of waste and redundant people—as signs of overheating.

by Lucie Cerna Highly skilled people are an indispensable driver of economic growth, competitiveness and innovation. Countries can develop that talent on their own through investment in education and training, but there is a faster way: recruit it from abroad.

by Fabrizio Bernardi and Gabriele Ballarino Widespread education is, without a doubt, one of the great achievements of modern, industrialised states. In gross terms, it has pulled millions out of poverty over the last century. In relative terms, it has facilitated unprecedented socio-economic mobility and, presumably, equality. Presumably.