Skip to page content

Households

Featured

Report
Americans' Spending Declines Consistently After Age 65
Americans' personal spending drops consistently after age 65, both among the affluent and those with lower levels of financial resources. The findings contradict traditional wisdom that spending will be constant or even increase during older age, and suggests that individuals and couples could spend more early in retirement.
Dec 7, 2022
Essay
Why Are U.S. Military Families Experiencing Food Insecurity?
Around a quarter of active-duty service members qualify as “food insecure.” But what's causing that, how to fix it—even what it means—is not clear. Food insecurity is a multifaceted problem that needs multifaceted solutions.
Nov 6, 2023

Explore Households

Essay
How New York City Can Make Housing More Affordable
With few vacancies, rents in New York City have become some of the most unaffordable in the world. People with subsidized housing vouchers often have nowhere to go to use them. Housing production is a critical part of any solution to housing affordability—in New York and elsewhere.
Nov 10, 2023
Report
What Is the Housing Cost Burden Among U.S. Veterans?
Fewer veteran households than nonveteran ones are financially burdened by housing costs. Veterans are more likely to be homeowners than nonveterans are, and have lower housing costs than nonveteran homeowners. Veterans who are younger, are female, live in high-cost housing markets, or rent are the ones most in need of housing support.
Oct 12, 2023
Journal Article
Are Household Formation Decisions and Living Together Fraud & Error Affected by the Living Together as a Married Couple Policy? An Evidence Review
This report summarises evidence on living together fraud and error (LTFE) and the social and economic context in which LTFE is embedded, with a view to informing DWP's living together policy and its application to reserved GB benefits.
Jul 11, 2023
Commentary
The Inflation Pain You Don't See
Official statistics don't capture the pain of inflation for many Americans. That's because there's something wrong with how we define the middle class. Far more American households earn a middle-class income than enjoy a middle-class lifestyle.
Jan 18, 2023
Journal Article
A Consumption-Based Definition of the Middle Class
In this paper, we develop a consumption-based measure of the middle class that closely follows economic theory of constrained optimization.
Jan 11, 2023
News Release
Americans' Spending Declines Consistently After Age 65; Finding Applies Broadly Across All Wealth Groups
Americans' personal spending drops consistently after age 65, both among the affluent and those with lower levels of financial resources. The findings contradict traditional wisdom that spending will be constant or even increase during older age, and suggests that individuals and couples could spend more early in retirement.
Dec 7, 2022
Journal Article
American Single Father Homes: A Growing Public Health Priority
This commentary highlights the need for public health, child welfare and healthcare to pay more attention to fathers and their role in parenting/child development.
Jun 22, 2022
Journal Article
Pathways to Retirement Among Dual Earning Couples
This paper examines the transition from full-time work to fully retired among dual earning couples, which we call joint retirement trajectories. We analyze 12 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to map out the distribution of potential pathways that couples undertake when retiring.
Apr 21, 2022
Journal Article
CPS Nonresponse During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Explanations, Extent, and Effects
This paper examines survey nonresponse in the CPS at the start of the pandemic and estimates to what extent nonresponse led to an underestimate of the unemployment rate.
Dec 21, 2021
Journal Article
A Dynamic Behavioral Model of Korean Saving, Work, and Benefit Claiming Decisions
We develop a model that captures elements of the South Korean National Pension Scheme and behavioral responses in labor supply, savings and benefit claiming to changes in the public pension system using a sample of married couples nearing retirement.
Dec 21, 2021
Commentary
Most Americans Consider Themselves Middle-Class. But Are They?
There are different ways of determining who should be considered middle-class. But there is one thing they have in common: All reveal that the middle class in the United States is shrinking.
May 14, 2021
Journal Article
SNAP Participants and High Levels of Food Insecurity in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic
We examined how people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, particularly Black participants, and participants residing in food deserts.
Apr 2, 2021
Commentary
The Decline of the American Middle Class
Depending on definition, the American middle class has been either receiving less income or shrinking in size since the '70s. The economic effects of the pandemic will likely generate further declines in the middle class and a disproportionate entry into the lower class.
Feb 25, 2021
Journal Article
Inequality in Household Adaptation to Schooling Shocks: Covid-induced Online Learning Engagement in Real Time
Using internet searches, we study real-time demand for online learning resources. Internet searches for online learning resources doubled during the pandemic. Increases were larger in are as with higher income and better internet access. The pandemic will likely widen achievement gaps along these dimensions.
Feb 3, 2021
Report
Estimating the incidence of a housing affordability gap across the Cambridge travel-to-work area
The aim of this study is to estimate the number of households living in the Cambridge travel-to-work area that fall into a housing affordability gap, i.e. earn below £45,000. Almost half (48.4%) of these households fall in the gap, varying locally.
Dec 9, 2020
Blog
Veterans Day, Psychedelic Drug Policy, Family Caregivers: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses supporting veterans with mental health and substance use disorders, changes to psychedelic drug policy, the vital role of family caregivers, and more.
Nov 13, 2020
Report
How Is COVID-19 Changing Online Shopping Habits?
Americans' online shopping habits have continued to shift during the pandemic. By August 2020, more people were shopping online, and 39 percent reported spending more money on their purchases. People who spent less were likely to have lost employment.
Nov 10, 2020
Journal Article
Emerging Infectious Disease, the Household Built Environment Characteristics, and Urban Planning: Evidence on Avian Influenza in Vietnam
This study examines the relationship between the mix of household-scale water supplies, sanitation systems, and construction materials, and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza among poultry in Vietnam.
Sep 16, 2020

1
2
3
4
5
6
Next

RAND Topic:
Households

Topic Synonyms:
Homes;
Residences

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Jessie Wang

Economist

Jessie Wang is an economist RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research interests include time use, population aging, the macroeconomic implications of individual decisions in labor and health, and gender roles. Her current work studies caregiving and…
Daniel Hicks

Economist

Daniel Hicks is an applied economist at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, with over a decade of experience researching topics such as gender inequality and household labor, health and environmental economics, education, crime, conflict, and public…

Explore Our People »