In Germany, as in many other countries in the western world, the baby boomers are reaching retirement age. As fewer young workers are entering the labour market than older workers are leaving due to low birth rates, the labour force workers is falling, all other things being equal. At the same...

Since the beginning of the 1980s, an increase in the number of fixed-term employment contracts has been apparent in a number of free-market-oriented economies. This has been accompanied by amendments to the pertinent legislation. From the early to mid-1980s, a number of EC countries initiated...