The Verein für Socialpolitik has currently one honorary member. Natural persons can become honorary members if they have made a special contribution towards the association´s purpose.

Friedrich Breyer has served as Treasurer of the Verein für Socialpolitik since 2019, assuming particular responsibility for the association’s financial stability and ability to act across four terms of the Executive Board. With great care, foresight, and reliability, he has supported the work of the Board and made an important contribution to securing the association’s institutional foundations for the long term. His extensive experience, personal commitment, and strong ties to the Verein für Socialpolitik have shaped its development over many years.

Regina T. Riphahn played a key role in shaping the strategic and substantive direction of the Verein für Socialpolitik during her tenure as Chair in 2023 and 2024. Improving access to research data remains a particular focus of her work beyond her term as Chair. Through the Commission on Research Data, which she initiated and continues to lead, she provides important impetus for the further development of the institutional and legal framework for research data access. In doing so, she makes a significant contribution to improving research conditions and strengthening the international competitiveness of empirical economic research in Germany.

Hans-Werner Sinn, who served as Chair of the Verein für Socialpolitik from 1997 to 2000, played a decisive role in opening up, modernizing, and internationalizing the association. During his tenure, important reforms were initiated, including measures to support early-career researchers and the reform of the association’s academic journals. These initiatives strengthened the international visibility of German-speaking economics and played an important part in the Verein für Socialpolitik’s development into a modern academic association with a strong international orientation.

As Chair of the Verein für Socialpolitik in 2015/2016, Monika Schnitzer made a decisive contribution to the modernisation of the association with the move of the office from Frankfurt to Berlin and the associated reorganisation. She has also anchored the topic of evidence-based economic policy in the German academic landscape.