Susann Rohwedder

Susann Rohwedder
Associate Director, RAND Center for the Study of Aging; Senior Economist; Professor of Economics, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Santa Monica Office

Education

Ph.D., M.A. in economics, University College London; M.S. in economics, University of Warwick

Media Resources

This researcher is available for interviews.

To arrange an interview, contact the RAND Office of Media Relations at (310) 451-6913, or email media@rand.org.

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Overview

Susann Rohwedder (she/her) is a senior economist at RAND, associate director of the RAND Center for the Study of Aging, and professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research focuses on the economics of aging in the areas of household consumption and saving behavior, retirement, long-term care and the prevalence of dementia, expectation formation, and subjective well-being.

Rohwedder has written on the impact of public pensions on household saving; the adequacy of retirement resources and spending and saving patterns of U.S. households; the effect of retirement on cognition; the lifetime risk of dementia and nursing home entry and associated out-of-pocket expenditures; and various topics involving individuals' expectations about future outcomes. Other papers deal with data quality and survey methods. Rohwedder has extensive experience in survey design and data collection: she is jointly responsible for the design of the HRS Consumption and Activities Mail Survey, led the design and collection of over 60 waves for the Financial Crisis Surveys fielded on the RAND American Life Panel, and played a leading role in the design and establishment of the the Singapore Life Panel.  

Rohwedder is a research fellow of NETSPAR (Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging, and Retirement) in the Netherlands,  serves on the Board of Directors of the Western Economics Association International and is associate editor of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from University College London, and Master's degrees from the University of Warwick and the Sorbonne in Paris.

Concurrent Non-RAND Positions

Research Fellow, NETSPAR; Researcher, Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center; Associate Editor, Journal of the Economics of Ageing

Previous Positions

Research Scholar, Institute for Fiscal Studies, London

Recent Projects

  • Economic well-being at older ages
  • Spending patterns of the older population
  • Trends in inequalities in dementia prevalence
  • Expectation formation about retirement resources and retirement planning

Selected Publications

Hudomiet, Péter, Michael D. Hurd, Susann Rohwedder, "Trends in Inequalities in the Prevalence of Dementia in the U.S.," Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, 119(46), 2022

Hudomiet, Péter, Michael D. Hurd, Susann Rohwedder, "The age profile of life satisfaction after age 65 in the U.S.," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 189, 2021

Jim Been, Susann Rohwedder and Michael D. Hurd, "Does Home Production Replace Consumption Spending? Evidence from Shocks in Housing Wealth in the Great Recession," Review of Economics and Statistics, 2018

Michael D. Hurd, Pierr-Carl Michaud and Susann Rohwedder, "Distribution of lifetime nursing home use and of out‐of‐pocket spending," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(37), 2017

Delavande, Adeline and Susann Rohwedder, "Differential Survival in Europe and the United States: Estimates Based on Subjective Probabilities of Survival," Demography, 48(4), 2011

Rohwedder, Susann and Robert J. Willis, "Mental Retirement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(1), 2010

Delavande, Adeline and Susann Rohwedder, "Eliciting Subjective Probabilities in Internet Surveys," Public Opinion Quarterly, 72(5), 2008

Attanasio, Orazio P. and Susann Rohwedder, "Pension Wealth and Household Saving: Evidence from Pension Reforms in the United Kingdom," American Economic Review, 93(5), 2003

Honors & Awards

  • Research Fellow, NETSPAR (Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement)
  • Bronze Merit Award (2010, 2016), RAND

Languages

German; French

Recent Media Appearances

Interviews: SMU ENGAGE, Singapore; TheStreet

Commentary

  • Living Longer, Working Longer

    When people live longer, the costs of Social Security and Medicare increase and threaten the sustainability of these programs. Households also worry about how to finance more retirement years. But people are working longer, and if they continue to do so, they will reduce some of the problems.

    Aug 25, 2016

    The RAND Blog

  • One in Five Hourly Employees Working Overtime Not Properly Compensated

    Most laws as old as the Fair Labor Standards Act regularly need tuning up. But its overtime provisions are complicated because some workers are exempt from being covered. A survey of more than 1,500 employed adults finds that employers are violating the rules.

    Sep 4, 2015

    The RAND Blog

Publications

Multimedia