Featured Researcher: Brigitte Madrian

Brigitte Madrian is a Research Associate in the NBER's programs on Labor Studies, Public Economics, Children, Health Care and Aging.

Madrian is the Boettner Associate Professor in Financial Gerontology and an Associate Professor of Business and Public Policy at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She previously held faculty positions at the University of Chicago and Harvard University.

Madrian is also a co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources and a TIAA-CREF Institute Fellow. She has been awarded the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security and the National Academy of Social Insurance Heinz Dissertation Award.

She received a B.A. and M.A. from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Madrian's current research focuses on the determinants of employee savings behavior in 401(k) and other employer-sponsored savings plans, including the impact of market returns, matching, financial education, defaults, and other aspects of plan design on savings outcomes. Some of her earlier work examined how access to employer-provided health insurance affects job mobility and retirement.

Madrian lives in suburban Philadelphia with her husband David and her two daughters, Erika age 8 and Liesel age 5. In at attempt to prove that old dogs can learn new tricks, she decided last year to learn to play the violin. You can hear her practicing late at night after the kids have gone to bed.