Frank Stafford on the origins of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)

Frank Stafford, Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Michigan, joins the podcast to talk to Princeton’s Orley Ashenfelter about the origins of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and his research on labor supply, income volatility, family dynamics, and more.

In this episode, Stafford and Ashenfelter discuss:

• Stafford’s childhood in Chicagoland and his time studying at Northwestern and the University of Chicago.
• The origins of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) which, as the longest running longitudinal household survey in the world, has been collecting data from more than 5,000 families since 1968.
• Stafford’s visiting role at the U.S. Department of Labor in the 1970s.
• Stafford’s work establishing panel studies in other countries, including Sweden, Germany, the UK, Israel, and Australia.

Stafford earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1968 and is a co-principal investigator of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). "The Work Goes On"—a podcast produced as Princeton's Industrial Relations Section (IR Section) celebrates its 100th anniversary—is an oral history of industrial relations and labor economics hosted by Princeton's Orley Ashenfelter.