Robert J. Willis
Retired Research Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan
Robert J. Willis, is a retired Professor Emeritus of Economics and Research Professor in the Survey Research Center and the Population Studies Center of the Institute for Social Research. He is the past Director for the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal survey of over 22,000 persons over age 50 in the United States, which is supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Professor Willis received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1971. He joined the University of Michigan in 1995, and holds joint appointments with the Survey Research Center and the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research. Before coming to Michigan, Professor Willis held appointments at the University of Chicago, SUNY at Stony Brook, and Stanford University. He has served on a number of advisory boards including, currently, the Census Advisory Board, the Board of Visitors of the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College.
Projects
- UM17-10: How do Changes in Health and Cognition Affect the Timing of Retirement? Evidence from Occupational Job Demands and Job Mismatch
- UM16-03: Occupational Transitions Among Older Workers
- UM15-01: Changing Work Demands and Compositional Changes in Occupations: Effects on Expected Retirement
- UM10-08: Cognitive Function and Financial Knowledge: A Human Capital Approach
- UM08-07: Early Social Security Claiming and Cognitive Resources
- UM07-04: Managing the Risk of Life
- UM06-09: Probabilistic Thinking and Early Social Security Claiming
- UM05-07: Secure Data Environment and Development of Remote Data Access Facilities
- UM04-11: Secure Data Environment and Development of Remote Data Access Facilities
- UM02-04: Subjective Probability Distributions and the Decision to Save
- UM00-04: Implications of Cognitive and Physical Impairment for Management of Financial Resources Including Individual Accounts
- UM00-09: Families, Markets and Social Insurance
- UM99-05: The Impact of Widowhood on the Economic Status of Women
Publications
- The Effect of Physical and Cognitive Decline at Older Ages on Work and Retirement: Evidence from Occupational Job Demands and Job Mismatch (Research Brief)
- The Effect of Physical and Cognitive Decline at Older Ages on Work and Retirement: Evidence from Occupational Job Demands and Job Mismatch (Working Paper)
- Occupational Transitions at Older Ages: What Moves are People Making? (Research Brief)
- Occupational Transitions at Older Ages: What Moves are People Making? (Working Paper)
- Occupations and Work Characteristics: Effects on Retirement Expectations and Timing (Research Brief)
- Occupations and Work Characteristics: Effects on Retirement Expectations and Timing (Working Paper)
- Occupational Learning, Financial Knowledge, and the Accumulation of Retirement Wealth (Research Brief)
- Occupational Learning, Financial Knowledge, and the Accumulation of Retirement Wealth (Working Paper)
- Preparation for Retirement, Financial Literacy and Cognitive Resources (Working Paper)
- Managing the Risk of Life (Working Paper)
- Probabilistic Thinking and Early Social Security Claiming (Working Paper)
- Probabilistic Thinking and Early Social Security Claiming (Conference Paper)
- Who Becomes a Stockholder? Expectations, Subjective Uncertainty, and Asset Allocation (Conference Paper)
- Who Becomes a Stockholder? Expectations, Subjective Uncertainty, and Asset Allocation (Working Paper)
- Widowhood, Divorce, and Loss of Health Insurance Among Near Elderly Women: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study (Working Paper)
- The Economic Consequences of Widowhood (Research Brief)
- Informal Caregiving for Diabetes and Diabetic Complications Among Elderly Americans (Working Paper)
- The Economic Consequences of Widowhood (Working Paper)
- Cognition and Wealth: The Importance of Probabilistic Thinking (Research Brief)
- Informal Caregiving for Diabetes and Diabetic Complications Among Elderly Americans (Research Brief)
- Cognition and Wealth: The Importance of Probabilistic Thinking (Working Paper)
- Cognition and Wealth: The Importance of Probabilistic Thinking (Conference Paper)
- The Economic Consequences of a Husband’s Death: Evidence from the HRS and AHEAD (Conference Paper)
Researchers by Institution
- AARP
- Abt Associates
- American University
- Arizona State University
- Australian National University
- Bocconi University
- Boston University
- Brookings Institute
- Brown University
- California State University
- Carleton University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
- City College of New York (CUNY)
- City University of New York
- Claremont Graduate University
- Columbia University
- Concordia University-Canada
- Copenhagen Business School
- Cornell University
- Dartmouth College
- Duke University
- European Commission
- Federal Reserve Bank of Minneanapolis
- Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
- Federal Reserve Bank-Richmond
- Federal Reserve Bank-San Francisco
- Federal Reserve Board
- Florida State University
- George Washington University
- Georgetown University
- Goethe University
- Harvard University
- HEC Montréal
- Imperial College London
- Institute for Fiscal Studies
- Ithaca College
- Johns Hopkins University
- Kyoto University
- Louisiana State University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Mathematica Policy Research
- Max Planck Institute
- Michigan State University
- National Institute on Aging
- National University of Singapore
- New School of Social Research
- New York University
- Occidental College
- Ohio State University
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- Other
- Pennsylvania State University
- Princeton
- Purdue University
- RAND Corporation
- Social Security Administration
- Stanford University
- SUNY-Buffalo
- SUNY-Stony Brook
- Syracuse University
- Texas A&M University
- Texas Tech University
- The College of William & Mary
- Tilburg University
- U.S. Census Bureau
- Universidad de Chile
- University College London
- University of Alabama
- University of Arkansas
- University of Bristol
- University of California-Berkeley
- University of California-Davis
- University of California-Irvine
- University of California-Los Angeles
- University of California-San Diego
- University of Cambridge
- University of Chicago
- University of Colorado at Boulder
- University of Colorado Denver
- University of Essex
- University of Frankfort
- University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability
- University of New South Wales
- University of Notre Dame
- University of Oregon
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Southern California
- University of Texas
- University of Victoria
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington
- University of Wisconsin – Madison
- Urban Institute
- Vanderbilt University
- Washington University in St. Louis
- Wayne State University
- Wellesley College
- Williams College
- Yale University