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 the RAND Corporation, 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, with emphasis on the financial security of the older population and the relationship between financial security and health; it encompasses studies of household wealth, income consumption and saving, retirement, and pensions, and risks of out-of-pocket health care spending and long-term care expenses. An important emphasis is inequalities by race and ethnicity in economic and health outcomes, including differential trends in survival and dementia prevalence.

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 61 waves for Financial Crisis Surveys fielded on the RAND American Life Panel, and played a leading role in the design and establishment of the Singapore Life Panel. She directs the RAND HRS Data Development Effort, which produces user-friendly longitudinal data sets combining information from the first to the latest HRS wave.

Rohwedder is a research fellow of the Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging, and Retirement, Netherlands; serves on the Board of Directors of the Western Economic 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.

Concurrent Non-RAND Positions

Research Fellow, NETSPAR; Researcher, Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center; Associate Editor, Journal of the Economics of Ageing; Board of Directors, Western Economic Association International

Previous Positions

Research Scholar, Institute for Fiscal Studies, London

Recent Projects

  • Dementia research: improving accuracy of dementia measurement in surveys and administrative data; dementia incidence and its predictors; trends in inequalities in dementia mortality
  • Financial and health risks and their impact on well-being and economic preparation for retirement
  • Subjective conditional expectations to estimate causal effects of policies with applications to health, caregiving and labor force participation

Selected Publications

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

Hudomiet, P., Hurd, M.D., & Rohwedder, S., "Forecasting Mortality Inequalities in the U.S. Based on Trends in Midlife Health," Journal of Health Economics, 80(Art. No. 1), 2021

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

Hudomiet, P., Hurd, M.D., & Rohwedder, S., "The Relationship Between Lifetime Out-of-pocket Medical Expenditures, Dementia, and Socioeconomic Status in the U.S.," Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 14(Art. No. 1), 2019

Hurd, M.D., Michaud, P.-C., & Rohwedder, S., "Distribution of lifetime nursing home use and of out‐of‐pocket spending," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(37), 2017

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

Rohwedder, S., & Willis, R.J., "Mental Retirement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(1), 2010

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

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; New York Times

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

  • Wages and Compensation

    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