New Centre for Social Law and Social Policy in Munich

With the appointment of Axel Boersch-Supan, the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Social Law has acquired a new research focus and a new name.

July 21, 2011

The former Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Social Law in Munich now has an additional director: Axel Boersch-Supan is to head the Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (the MEA department). With this appointment, the Max Planck Society has established a center dedicated to basic research in social law and social policy in Munich. At the same time, the Institute has changed its name to Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.

The Senate of the Max Planck Society resolved on 19 November 2010 to appoint Axel Boersch-Supan as scientific member and director. The high-profile economist has accepted the appointment and began work at the Institute effective 1 January 2011, initially on a part-time basis. He took up his post full-time on 1 July.

Professor Boersch-Supan, born 1954, studied economics and mathematics in Munich and Bonn, before earning a doctorate in economics at M.I.T. in Cambridge (USA) in 1984. From 1984 until 1987 he was assistant professor at the J. F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. From 1987 he taught for two years at the University of Dortmund, and since 1989 has worked at the University of Mannheim. Until 2001 he held the chair of Macroeconomics and Economic Policy and was director of the Institute of Economics and Statistics. In that year, Professor Boersch-Supan founded the Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), which he also headed in the capacity of director. Professor Boersch-Supan is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

With the move to Munich, the research work carried out by the MEA in the fields of old-age provision and savings behaviour, the economics of health and life expectancy and the macroeconomic implications of an aging society will be continued and expanded under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy. The two infrastructure projects SHARE (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe) and SAVE (Savings and Old-Age Provision in Germany) are now also based in Munich.

“Our aging society presents a major challenge which – since there are no historical parallels – poses many fundamental questions in terms of social policy and economics. With the integration of our research into the Max Planck Society, the excellent conditions and the wide variety of opportunities for cooperation will add valuable new momentum to our work. I am greatly looking forward to taking up my post in Munich,” said Axel Boersch-Supan. Particularly with regard to the effects of social law on economic behaviour patterns in Germany and abroad, the department headed by Professor Boersch-Supan will be working closely with the department of International and Foreign Social Law.

“This appointment represents an important expansion of the Institute. Our cooperation is certain to contribute to a better understanding of the social policy background to our research and the conditions for the effectiveness of the law," emphasised Professor Ulrich Becker. His department of Foreign and International Social Law is devoted to basic research in this field and in comparative social law. The main focus is on systems which safeguard against social risks such as sickness, old age, long-term care, invalidity, unemployment and accidents, as well as systems that provide social aid and support. A systematic study of the principal developments in social law, particularly the reforms in the social security systems of developed countries, the Europeanization and internationalisation of social law and the establishment of social benefit systems in developing countries is of central importance in this regard.

MN/BA

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