Michaela Kreyenfeld

Michaela Kreyenfeld is Professor of Sociology at the Hertie School in Berlin, where she conducts research at the intersection of social inequality, social policy, and family sociology/demography. Her work is characterized by a methodological focus on life course analysis using longitudinal data, with particular attention to how family transitions affect economic outcomes and well-being across the lifespan.

Professor Kreyenfeld's research interests center on social inequality patterns related to family formation and dissolution, with emphasis on gender differences in economic outcomes following divorce, the impact of family policies on fertility decisions, and the long-term consequences of family transitions on pension entitlements. Her work combines sophisticated quantitative methods with policy-relevant questions, particularly examining how social policy regulations shape life course trajectories.

Her recent publications reveal strong trends in analyzing the gendered consequences of family transitions, with particular focus on the pension gap between mothers and fathers, the economic impacts of divorce, and fertility patterns across different social groups in Europe. These works consistently employ longitudinal and comparative approaches to understand how structural factors interact with individual-level decisions.

• Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• Co-Director of the Einstein Center Population Diversity
• Member of the Consortium Board of the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB)
• Chair of the Expert Commission for the German Federal Government's 10th Family Report

Professor Kreyenfeld leads significant research projects including the DFG-funded DiDi (Divorce and Diagnosis) project examining how divorce affects health and employment trajectories in Germany, and the FAMPEN project comparing France and Germany to investigate how childbirth and divorce affect public pension entitlements. She has taught courses including Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis, Applied Logistic Regression, Public Policy & Demographic Change, Social Inequality, and Demographic Change & Policy Challenges.

She is actively involved with the Einstein Center Population Diversity and has contributed substantially to policy discussions through her work with the Federal Institute for Population Research and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for Employment Research.