Steven Venti

Overview

Steven Venti is an economist at Dartmouth College and a research associate at the NBER. His research focuses on household saving behavior, retirement economics, and the economics of aging. He is a long-standing co-author of James Poterba and David Wise on research using Health and Retirement Study data.

Key Contributions

• Poterba-Venti-Wise HRS series: Co-developer of a multi-paper series on post-retirement asset evolution and the education-wealth gap. The 2010 paper (WP 15789) documents latent health quintile stratification in post-retirement asset growth and sharp declines at divorce. The 2013a paper decomposes education-wealth pathways. The 2017 paper (WP 23307) extends to DI participation; health explains ~74% of women's education-DI gap. See Post-Retirement Asset Drawdown and Education and DI Participation.
• IRA and 401(k) research: Early empirical work on whether tax-advantaged saving vehicles (IRAs, 401(k) plans) increase net household saving or merely displace other saving.
• Post-retirement wealth evolution: Documents how household portfolios shift post-retirement, including the differential role of Social Security income in protecting non-annuity assets.

Related

• James Poterba
• David Wise
• Health and Retirement Study
• Income-Mortality Gradient

Sources

• Poterba Rauh Venti and Wise 2006 — Lifecycle Asset Allocation Strategies and the Distribution of 401(k) Retirement Wealth
• Poterba Venti and Wise 2010 — Family Status Transitions, Latent Health, and the Post-Retirement Evolution of Assets
• Poterba Venti and Wise 2013a — Health Education and the Post-Retirement Evolution of Household Assets
• Poterba Venti and Wise 2017 — The Long Reach of Education Health, Wealth, and DI Participation