"This book is dedicated to Professor Jos Berghman (1949-2014), initiator and director of IMPALLA, the International Master in Social Policy Analysis by Luxembourg, Leuven and Associated Institutes."--P. vii.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-256).

The current retrenchment of the welfare states is buffering the growing demographic and economic pressures in European countries at the expense of the young and the elderly. However, both investment in the young, which determines a society's future, and providing public support for the elderly, the most deserving needy group, are seen as musts. This book encompasses a selection of empirical studies reflecting on when and why the young and the elderly are at risk in several (mostly Western) European countries. Contributions in the book examine the educational achievement and the labor market entry of youths, particularly those who have a migration background, the poverty risk experienced by the elderly, especially if they are also immigrants and/or women, the pension outcomes of former cross-border workers, the simulated consequeces of a recent pension benefit reform as well as those of a potential reform including financial assets and housing wealth in old-age income protection, and finally the extent, and possible erosion, of the support for government providing child-care and protecting the elderly.