Randall Olsen

Professor Olsen is the Director of the Center for Human Resource Research (CHRR) and has been heavily involved with the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (NLS) for over twenty years. He also works on other projects at CHRR, most of which are related to applied microeconomics. For example, CHRR has operated the Consumer Finance Monthly survey since 2005, which has collected detailed data on household balance sheets, financial management and financial knowledge. Having been continuously collected for over two years in advance of the financial panic and subsequent recession as well as since then, these data provide a unique lens through which researchers can study the recent financial dislocations. The Consumer Finance Monthly is the only continuously operated household financial survey of American households over this period. It has been used for dissertations by several graduate students in the department. Over the years, several graduate students with interests in labor and economic demography have supported themselves with research assistant positions at CHRR.