Werner Eichhorst studied sociology, political science, psychology and public policy and administration at the universities of Tuebingen and Konstanz where he graduated as Diplom-Verwaltungswissenschaftler in 1995. From 1996 to 1999 he was Doctoral and Post-doctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. In fall 1998 he received his doctoral degree from the University of Konstanz. From 1999 to 2004 he was Project Director at the Bertelsmann Foundation, a private think tank in Germany, where he was responsible for comparative analyses of the German labour market and related policy areas ( "Benchmarking Germany ").After working with the Institute for Employment Research, IAB, from 2004 to 2005, he joined IZA as Research Associate in July 2005, became Senior Research Associate in February 2006 and Deputy Director of Labor Policy in April 2007. His main research area is the comparative analysis of labour market institutions and performance as well as the political economy of labour market reform strategies.