Contents: Introduction and overview, Erik Schokkaert. Ethical Concepts and Principles: Altruism, efficiency and justice: ethical challenges to the welfare state, Erik Schokkaert;

The ethics and the normgiving: the example of rehabilitation, Lotta Westerhall;

Crossing frontiers: migration and social security, Simon Roberts;

Alternative measures of national poverty: perspectives and assessment, Robert H. Haveman and Melissa Mullikin;

The measurement of absolute poverty, Jonathan Bradshaw. Ethics and Attitudes: Popularity and participation: social security reform in Australia, Peter Saunders and Maneerat Pinyopusarerk;

Coping with risk: attitudes towards private unemployment insurance in Britain and Germany, Andreas Cebulla. Ethics and the Evaluation of Concrete Institutions: The pre-market phase: the transition from a state-controlled to a market-based social security system, Jasper C. van den Brink and Esther N. Bergsma;

Public programs create private incentives and disincentives toward work, Barbara L. Wolfe;

Social security, intergovernmental fiscal relations and efficiency: the case of the two systems of public assistance for the unemployed in Germany, Martin T.W. Rosenfeld;

Skills, gender equality and the distributional impact of female labour market participation in the three worlds of welfare capitalism, Bea Cantillon, Joris Ghysels, Ninke Mussche and Rudi van Dam;

What determines work resumption from long sickness spells? - an analysis of six countries, Edward Palmer and Ali Tasiran; Demographic change and partial funding: is the Swedish pension reform a role model for Germany?, Jochen Jagob and Werner Sesselmeier; List of contributors.