Melissa Hardy, Ph.D.

Biography:

Research Interests: Hardy conducts research in the demography of work and retirement transitions, household saving behavior, and financial security in old age (Hardy 2002; Willson and Hardy 2002; Hirsch, Macpherson and Hardy, 2000). Her career interest in the retirement process includes gender and race/ethnic differences in the timing and precipitants of retirement, as well as variation in the nature of the transition (e.g., distinctions between partial and complete retirement; between short-term retirement followed by reentry and sustained retirement; between retirement from career jobs and retirement from bridge jobs). Her research on retirement is not limited to individual behavior, but also includes organizational structures of retirement, firm-based and federal pension policies that shape retirement opportunities, legislation that regulates employers’ decisions with regard to older workers (Hardy, forthcoming; Hardy and Shuey, 2000a,b; Hardy, Hazlerigg and Quadagno 1996), and (most recently) the role of technology and workplace culture (Hardy and Baird, 2003) in integrating versus marginalizing older workers. She was part of the National Research Council’s Steering Committee on Technology and Adaptive Aging, and authored a paper for the National Academy of Sciences’ workshop on Decision Making Needs of Older Persons. She also has a more general interest in quantitative techniques of data analysis and their application to the study of demographic processes (Hardy and Bryman, 2004). Her current work also includes studies of retirement planning and expectations, early career planning and expectations, and the relative influence of modeling behavior and personality on the formation and fulfillment of expectations.

Teaching interests: Her teaching interests include classes on quantitative data analysis, from descriptive to advanced techniques, seminars on inequality and aging, and seminars that look at policy issues from a multidisciplinary approach (most typically sociology, economics and political science).

Books:

Hardy, Melissa and Lawrence Hazelrigg (2007). Pension Puzzles: Social Security and the Great Debate.

New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Hardy, Melissa and Alan Bryman (eds) (2004). Handbook of Data Analysis. London: Sage.

Hardy, Melissa A. (ed.) (1997) Studying Aging and Social Change: Conceptual and Methodological Issues. Beverly Hill and London: Sage Publications.

Hardy, Melissa A., Lawrence E. Hazelrigg, and Jill Quadagno. (1996). Ending a Career in the Auto Industry: Thirty and Out. New York, NY: Plenum Publishing.

Hardy, Melissa A. (1993). Regression with Dummy Variables. Sage University Paper Series on Quantatative Application in the Social Sciences. Beverly Hills and London: Sage Publications.