Professor of Social Policy and Public Economy at Ruhr University of Bochum
Studied Educational Theory, Mathematics, and Economics in Regensburg and Bielefeld; 1989 received Doctorate from Bielefeld University, followed by Habilitation in 1996 at the University of Frankfurt. Worked as Research Associate in the Collaborative Research Center 3 – "Microanalytic Foundations of Social Policy," in the project, "Microsimulation," and Research Assistant in the Department of Economic Sciences at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt. After holding positions at the Humboldt University in Berlin (Chair of Public Economics), the University of Bremen (Center for Social Policy Research), and Bielefeld University (Chair of Economics), she is now part of the Chair for Social Policy and Public Economics at Ruhr University of Bochum since 1999.
On behalf of federal and regional ministries and on municipal levels, she has worked on diverse projects in the area of poverty research, social reporting, and family policy. She is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for Family Matters of the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth (BMFSFJ). From 2002–2006, she was the prorector for teaching, continuing education, and media at the Ruhr University of Bochum. Her additional scholarly functions in advising and organizing include membership on numerous advisory boards of research institutions (e.g., Federal Institute for Population Research, German Youth Institute), as an evaluator for research funding institutions (e.g., for the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Swiss National Science Foundation), on the board of research associations (e.g., German Society for Demography) and as member of the Committee for Research Organizations of the German Council of Science and Humanities.
Research Areas: general issues of social policy, particularly the economies of households and family policy, as well as health economics und public health.
