Karen Holden

About

Karen Holden is Professor Emerita of Public Affairs and Consumer Science. She is an Affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Center for the Health and Demography of Aging, and the Center for Demography and Ecology. She is also an affiliate of the Center for Retirement Security, of which she was the founding co-director.  She was Associate Director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs in 1995-98 and 2005-07. Her research focused on the effects of Social Security and pension policy on economic status after retirement and widowhood. Previous work has examined issues in the areas of disability, welfare reform, mandatory retirement policies, and risk of nursing home care. In 1986-87 she was a visiting economist at the Social Security Administration’s Office of Research and Statistics. In retirement she remains actively engaged in speaking about Social Security finances and reform proposals and in financial education for vulnerable groups. 

Professor Holden’s projects also included an examination of the adequacy of retirement savings and correlates of changes in adequacy over time; happiness and financial well-being; evaluation of financial literacy programs; and development of financial education programs for young children. She served on the National Academy of Social Insurance Task Force that examined payout issues should there be individual Social Security accounts. The report, “Uncharted Waters: Paying Benefits from Individual Accounts in Federal Retirement Policy,” has informed the policy debate on Social Security reform. She received her BA degree in economics from Barnard College and her doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)