PSC In The News
Stafford, Schoeni, and Chen find many Americans making little headway against debt
Wightman and Schoeni find most young adults helped financially by parents
Johnston says decline in perceived risk contributes to rise in marijuana use among teens
Patrick calls increase in newborns undergoing drug withdrawal a public health epidemic
Danziger discusses use of IRS data in trend analyses of income distribution
Highlights
Research Professor position in international family demography, PSC/SRC
Pamela Smock elected president of the Association of Population Centers
Elisha Renne awarded Guggenheim Fellowship for African studies
Bob Groves leaving Census Bureau for Georgetown University
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Robert Willis
Funded Research:
Assessing and Improving Cognitive Measurement in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (NIA)
Behavior on Surveys and in the Economy Using HRS (NIA)
Behavior on Surveys and in the Economy: HRS and Beyond (NIA)
Behavior on Surveys and in the Economy: HRS and Beyond - Admin.Supplement-Project 4 (NIA)
Fertility, Intergenerational Transfers, and Economic Development in South Africa (Hewlett)
Health and Retirement Study Yrs 23-28 (NIA)
Health Literacy and Health Disparities Among the Elderly (NIA)
Implications of Alzheimer's Disease Risk for Household Financial Decision Making (Pfizer, Inc.)
Retirement Savings, Subjective Expectations and Survey Measurement (NIA)
Using the Dynamics of Happiness to Measure the Subjective Importance of Events (NIA)
Widowhood, Divorce and Loss of Health Insurance Among Near Elderly Women: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study (Coverage Research Initiative) (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
Research Professor, Population Studies Center.
Professor, Economics.
Research Professor, Survey Research Center.
Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle
Dr. Willis has made important contributions to research in labor economics and the economics of fertility and the family. He is currently conducting research on out-of-wedlock childbearing and intergenerational transfers in Asia and the United States. Dr. Willis is past Director of the Health and Retirement Study.
Recent Publications
Journal Articles
Hudomiet, Peter, Gabor Kezdi, and Robert Willis. 2011. "Stock market crash and expectations of American households." Journal of Applied Econometrics, 26(3): 393-415. DOI. Abstract.
Smith, James P., John J. McArdle, and Robert Willis. 2010. "Financial Decision Making and Cognition in a Family Context." Economic Journal, 120(548): F363-F380. PMCID: PMC2992344. DOI. Abstract.
Rohwedder, Susann, and Robert Willis. 2010. "Mental Retirement." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(1): 119-138. PMCID: PMC2958696. DOI. Local Access.
Plassman, B.L., Kenneth M. Langa, G.G. Fisher, Steven Heeringa, David Weir, Mary Beth Ofstedal, J.R. Burke, M.D. Hurd, G.G. Potter, Willard Rodgers, D.C. Steffens, J.J. McArdle, Robert Willis, and R.B. Wallace. 2008. "Prevalence of cognitive impairment without dementia in the United States." Annals of Internal Medicine, 148(6): 427-434. PMCID: PMC2670458. Abstract. Local Access.
Plassman, B.L., Kenneth M. Langa, G.G. Fisher, Steven Heeringa, David Weir, Mary Beth Ofstedal, J.R. Burke, M.D. Hurd, G.G. Potter, Willard Rodgers, D.C. Steffens, Robert Willis, and R.B. Wallace. 2007. "Prevalence of dementia in the united states: The aging, demographics, and memory study." Neuroepidemiology, 29(1-2): 125-132. PMCID: PMC2705925. DOI. Abstract. Local Access.
Chapters
Brien, M., and Robert Willis. 2008. "Costs and Consequences for the Fathers." In Kids having kids : economic costs & social consequences of teen pregnancy edited by Hoffman, Saul D., Maynard, Rebecca A.. :119-160. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press.
Willis, Robert. 2008. "Interpreting norms of obligation as planner's preferences for distributional justice : a formal economic model." In Intergenerational caregiving edited by Booth, Alan. :341-350. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press.