Richard Burkhauser

Richard Burkhauser

My research focuses on how public policies affect the economic behavior and well-being of vulnerable populations, e.g., older persons, people with disabilities, and low-income households. I have published widely on these topics in journals of demography, economics, gerontology, as well as public policy.

 Each Fall semester I teach ECON 1110 Introduction to MIcroeconomics to around 450 students. The course is interactive with students using radio frequency clickers to respond to questions I present in my powerpoints.  Rather than a straight lecture, this allows me to present a core idea in class and then test students understanding of it in the same way that I do it in a small class. Depending on student responses I either continue with a new idea or reinforce the previous one. The class is paperless and students do problem sets each week that are graded on line.  

Every other year I teach PAM 4460/ECON 4460 Economics of Social Security. This is a seminar course I lead with a maximum of 16 students. In the course we focus on how Social Security policy has developed over the years and its impact on the economic well  being and economic behavior of older persons and persons with disabilities. 

Richard V. Burkhauser joined PAM in 1998. In 2012 he began a joint appointment as a Professorial Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (University of Melbourne). His professional career has focused on how public policies affect the economic behavior and well-being of vulnerable populations, e.g., older persons, people with disabilities, low-skilled workers. 

With research funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Richard V. Burkhauser is currently focusing on issues related to better measuring the employment and economic well-being of the working-age population with disabilities both in the United States and in European Union countries. He is also exploring the sensitivity of measures of income and income inequality to alternative specifications of income.

Burkhauser regularly presents his research findings on the consequences of disability policy to Congressional committees, government agencies, and consumer groups.

B.A., Economics, St. Vincent College, 1963-1967
M.A., Economics, Rutgers University, 1967-1969
Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago, 1972-1976

Econ 1110: Introductory Microeconomics
Econ 4460/PAM 4460: Economics of Social Security

Publications 2008-present with links to papers