Mel Stephens is professor of economics, with a courtesy appointment as a professor of public policy at the Ford School. He serves as a research affliate at the Population Studies Center and a faculty associate at the Survey Research Center, both within the Institute for Social Research. Stephens is also affliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research where he is currently a research associate. He also is a member of the Academic Research Council at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Stephens is a labor economist whose current research interests include consumption and savings, aging and retirement, education, the impact of local labor market fluctuations on household outcomes, and applied econometrics. He received his BA in economics and mathematics from the University of Maryland and his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.