Wealth, Work and Health: Innovations in Measurement in the Social Sciences

Wealth, Work, and Health takes as its inspiration the illustrious career of F. Thomas Juster, former Director of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. Juster devoted forty years to the question of how to measure behavior by asking people questions about the objective and subjective circumstances of their lives. During those same years, his innovative work in retirement decisions, allocation of time, and distribution of wealth influenced a new generation of scholars in the social sciences. Chapters in the volume address advances in measurement as well as disciplinary attitudes toward various forms of measurement–for example, the resistance of economics to qualitative measurements. Specific topics include measurement of expenditures and wealth; lifetime earnings, saving choices, and wealth at retirement; inheritances and bequests; impact of education and heart attack on smoking cessation among older adults; and intergenerational transfers. Crossing many disciplinary lines, this rich volume should be of interest to economists–especially those interested in health–sociologists, and demographers.
Contributors are Richard V. Burkhauser, Jeff Dominitz, Debra Dwyer, Alan L. Gustman, John C. Henretta, A. Regula Herzog, Daniel Hill, Michael D. Hurd, N. Anders Klevmarken, Maarten Lindeboom, Charles Manski, Olivia S. Mitchell, Sara Nichols, Andrew A. Samwick, James P. Smith, Beth J. Soldo, Frank P. Stafford, Thomas L. Steinmeier, Jules Theeuwes, Stephen F. Venti, Robert B. Wallace, Robert J. Willis, David A. Wise, Isolde Woittiez, Douglas A. Wolf, Edward N. Wolff, and Linda A. Wray. James P. Smith is Senior Economist, RAND. Robert J. Willis is Professor of Economics and Research Scientist at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.