ABSTRACT
Steffen Hillmert is a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Centre for Sociology and the Study of the Life Course, Berlin. He received his Ph.D. in sociology in 2000 and has worked on various issues of education, training, occupational careers and research methods. Recent publications include Ausbildungssysteme und Arbeitsmarkt (2001) and articles in Work, Employment and Society and European Sociological Review, (hillmert@mpib-berlin.mpg.de)
Martin Höpner is a political scientist and a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. His research interests are comparative political economy, corporate governance and industrial relations. One of his latest publications is Wer beherrscht die Unternehmen? Shareholder Value, Managerherrschaft und Mitbestimmung in Deutschland (2003). (mh@mpi-fg-koeln.mpg.de)
Charlie Jeffery is Deputy Director and Professor of German Politics at the Institute for German Studies, University of Birmingham. He also directs the research programme on Devolution and Constitutional Change for the UK Economic and Social Research Council. He writes on German federalism, German EU policy and comparative regional government in Europe. (jefferca@hhs.bham.ac.uk)
Herbert Kitschelt is Professor of Political Science at Duke University. He works on the dynamics of political parties and party systems in established and in new democracies. He also publishes on the interface between democratic party competition and social and economic policy reform. (h3738@duke.edu)
Stephan Leibfried is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Bremen. He co-directs the Centre for Social Policy Research and the new National Research Centre on the Transformation of the State. His major publications are in the field of welfare state development and internationalisation: European Social Policy (1995); Time and Poverty in Western Welfare States (1999, 2001); Limits to Globalization: Welfare States and the World Economy (2003). (stlf@zes.uni-bremen.de)
Karl Ulrich Mayer is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Centre for Sociology and the Study of the Life Course, and Professor of Sociology at Yale University. He directed the German Life History Study and co-directed the Berlin Aging Study. Recent publications include The Berlin Aging Study (1999, co-ed.), Die Beste aller welten? Marktliberalismus versus Wohlfahrstaat (2001) and Das Bildungswesen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2003, co-ed.). (mayer@mpibberlin. mpg.de).
