Research Centers

Many of the studies conducted in Labor and Population reside in one of several research centers. The issues studied include the economic position of minorities, changes in the female labor force, wealth and income disparities, welfare reform, the causes and consequences of family formation and fertility trends, child health and development, health and fertility in developing countries, and the health and functioning of older people, among others.

• Behavioral Finance Forum (BeFi), Arie Kapteyn, Academic Liaison
  The RAND Behavioral Finance Forum is a collective of academic, financial and government leaders fostering cutting edge behavioral research for practical application.
• Center for Disability Research (CDR), Nicole Maestas, Director; Kathleen Mullen, Associate Director
  The RAND Center for Disability Research aims to better understand the social and economic causes and consequences of disability. Research themes include examining the roles of employers, healthcare markets, knowledge networks and social insurance programs such as SSDI.
• Center for the Study of Aging, Michael D. Hurd, Director
  The RAND Center for the Study of Aging conducts objective, independent, behavioral research on the elderly population. The Center's interdisciplinary research staff aims to help improve public policy through both primary data collection and secondary data analysis. Its research agenda focuses on the interrelationships among health, economic status, socioeconomic factors, and public policy.
• Center for Aging Studies in Asia (CASA), James P. Smith, Director
  RAND Labor and Population has been involved in innovative research in Asia for thirty-five years. This research was initially centered around two innovative panel surveys that integrated various domains (economics, health, family planning, retirement, family relations) of individual and family life into one survey. This two surveys were the Malaysian Family Life Survey which began in 1974 and the Indonesian Family Life Survey that began in the early nineties and is still ongoing. In recent years, this research has focused on issues on population aging in a variety of Asian countries including China, India, Korea, Japan, and Thailand.
  • Center for Chinese Aging Studies (CCAS), James P. Smith, Director
    The Center for Chinese Aging Studies was founded in 2007 with a grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and support from RAND's Internal Research and Development. Its goal is to facilitate collaborative research with Chinese scholars on issues of population aging in China.
  • Center for Korean Aging Studies (CKAS), James P. Smith and Jinkook Lee, Co-Directors
    The Center for Korean Aging Studies was founded in 2008. Its goal is to facilitate research with Korean scholars on a variety of issues that are related to population aging policies in Korea.
• Center for Financial and Economic Decision Making (CFED), Angela Hung, Director
  • Roybal Center for Financial Decisionmaking , Arie Kapteyn, Director
    This Center aims to better understand how people reach decisions about issues that affect their economic status in old age and inform how public policy can educate or otherwise help people align decisions with their long-term objectives.
• Center for Latin American Social Policy (CLASP), Arie Kapteyn and Emma Aguila, Co-Directors
  CLASP conducts research throughout Latin America and the Latin American population in the United States in the areas of aging, social determinants and consequences of health, saving for retirement, social security coverage, labor market dynamics, and migration.
• Financial Literacy Center, Annamaria Lusardi (Dartmouth College and RAND), Director; Arie Kapteyn (RAND), Associate Director; Olivia S. Mitchell (Wharton School), Associate Director
  The mission of the Financial Literacy Center is to develop and test innovative programs to improve financial literacy and promote informed financial decisionmaking. With support from the Social Security Administration, the Center was established in October 2009 by the RAND Corporation, Dartmouth College, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
• Population Research Center, Michael Rendall, Director
  This Center is dedicated to the scientific advancement of population studies in a period when demographic changes are creating especially complex theoretical and public policy issues.
• Research & Policy in International Development (RAPID), Krishna Kumar, Director
  This Center aims to understand the factors influencing economic growth and development. Experts in economics, sociology, demography, anthropology, public health, and statistics come together to work on problems and develop policies critical to today's rapidly globalizing world.

• Center for the Study of the Family in Economic Development, Julie DaVanzo, Director
  This work included studies on economic growth and income distribution, fertility and contraception, infant mortality, child nutrition, education, health care, intrafamily resource allocation, migration, and aging.
• Center for the Study of Social Welfare Policy, Jacob A. Klerman, Director
  The Center for the Study of Social Welfare Policy provided non-partisan research and analysis on social welfare policy, including welfare reform, with research focusing on the key issues to refine and change those programs.
• Population Matters, Julie DaVanzo, Director
  The Population Matters program highlighted the importance of population policy issues and supplied a more scientific basis for public debate over population policy questions.
• Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation, Dana Goldman, Director
  This Center developed better models to understand the consequences of biomedical developments and social forces for health, health spending, and health care delivery. It built on a large body of research at RAND, including a multi-year effort to identify and forecast the consequences of medical breakthroughs over the next 30 years.
• Statewide CalWORKs Evaluation, Jacob A. Klerman, Director
  RAND conducted an evaluation of California's implementation of welfare reform under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. The project was conducted under contract from the California Department of Social Services.