“…Following the post-war economic depression, the rapid economic growth and the expansion of the welfare state during the Wirtschaftswunder of the 1950s and 1960s led to full employment, rising living conditions and social security, which is likely to have benefitted particularly people at the bottom of the income distribution (see Atkinson, 2008: 230;Kaelble, 2007: 187-8). By contrast, the relative economic security of this group can be expected to have declined during the period following the 1970s' Oil Crisis, which saw a substantial increase in unemployment, economic inequality, relative poverty and a retrenchment of unemployment benefits for people with low unemployment insurance contribution records (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, 2001;Eichhorst and Marx, 2011;Emmenegger et al, 2012;Leibfried et al, 1995; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2011; Ostheim and Schmidt, 2007).…”