BIO

Frank P. Stafford is Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan, and Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. Dr. Stafford has been Project Director and Principal Investigator of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) since 1996 and is currently Project Director of the Child Development Supplement (CDS) to the PSID. The PSID is one of the longest and most important, national panel studies of U.S. families and is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. In his role as PSID Project Director, Dr. Stafford has provided scientific oversight for all aspects of the data collection. Stafford’s experience with large, highly complex data collection projects facilitates the integration of the data into a coherent infrastructure that includes the creation of parallel systems for sample management, data collection, data processing, and data dissemination based on state-of-the-art technologies. Stafford is responsible for many innovations in data collection, including the use of unfolding brackets for the measurement of wealth. He has also written extensively on various dimensions of wealth, and has led the effort to implement the wealth and pension modules in the PSID. With Robert Belli, he introduced the use of event history calendars into the PSID. His research includes the design of national time diaries in both the PSID and the CDS. This has allowed him and others to understand the time use patterns of children and their parents. This research elucidates the impact of parent’s time with children on child development. These data also allow a much stronger examination of the division of household labor on labor market careers of parents. Stafford has published on measurement issues, particularly on event history calendars, time use, and wealth. His research (with Hiromi Ono) demonstrates that pension holding by wives predicts subsequent separation. His research on home ownership (with Erik Hurst) demonstrates that poor homeowners are much more likely to use the equity in their home to cushion economic shocks than are wealthier homeowners.