Anton Hemerijck was director of the Netherlands Council for Government Policy (WRR) between 2001 and 2009. In that period he also held a Chair in Comparative European Social Policy, Department of Public Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He studied economics at Tilburg University (1979-1986). He obtained his doctorate from Oxford University in 1993. He publishes widely on issues comparative social and economic policy and institutional policy analysis. Between 1997 and 2000 he was a Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the study of societies, working on the large comparative project on welfare and work in the open economy, directed by Fritz W. Scharpf and Vivien A. Schmidt. He is Professor of Institutional Policy Analysis and Vice-Rector of International Affairs at VU University, Amsterdam.
Anton Hemerijck's Changing Welfare States is a tour de force. Ranging broadly across countries, time periods, and policy areas, the book provides an overview of where we have been and where we might fruitfully go in terms of welfare state policy. The theoretical framework he advances deftly combines the best of institutional accounts and policy learning models into a realistic view of the possibilities of politics within evolving institutional constraints. Essential reading for scholars and policy makers alike. Kathleen Thelen, Ford Professor of Political Science, MIT