About

Dean Lillard is a Professor in the Human Sciences at The Ohio State University. He is associated with the Institute for Population Research, where he contributes to research and academic activities. His contact information includes an office at 060 Townshend Hall, Ohio State University, and his email is lillard.13@osu.edu. Additional contact details include a phone number (614) 292-4561 and a professional website. His research interests include health and mortality, as evidenced by his seed grant on cigarette smuggling, taxes, and substitution between cigarettes and e-cigarettes, awarded in 2020. Dr. Lillard's work focuses on population research, health-related issues, and related social sciences.

Research topics

• Internal medicine
• Social Science
• Medicine
• Sociology
• Gerontology
• Developmental psychology
• Agricultural economics
• Economics
• Psychiatry
• Genetics
• Biology
• Psychology
• Business
• Demography

Selected publications

• Pandemic Fallout: Sustained Declines in Young People’s Subjective Well-Being and Protective Factors in Switzerland

  Social Indicators Research · 2025-07-22

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Empirical evidence suggests that subjective well-being declined markedly in response to COVID-19 lockdown measures, followed by a gradual recovery, but not for all. Against this backdrop, this study employed linear random-effects regression models to analyse changes in subjective well-being across the general population, specifically among young people (aged 15-24) in Switzerland from 2017 to 2023. It also explored the pandemic-related consequences on youth. Using data from the Swiss Household Panel (N = 30,439 participants; n = 118,604 observations), the findings indicate that 2020 and 2021 marked a temporary deterioration within a broader, long-standing decline in subjective well-being. The results suggest that young people experienced more significant adverse effects than older age groups (45 +) during the short term (2020-2021) and the medium term (2022-2023) following the pandemic onset, though some recovery was observed more recently. Additionally, the study identified factors that mitigated the short-term pandemic-related psychological effects on youth, including being male, being Swiss by birth, having completed higher education, not living alone, and belonging to higher-income households. By identifying protective factors and resilience trajectories, policymakers and practitioners could design more targeted and effective interventions to promote youth well-being, thereby strengthening resilience and advancing a more equitable recovery in future crises.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Financial stress among college students: New data about student loan debt, lack of emergency savings, social and personal resources

  Journal of Consumer Affairs · 2024-04-25 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract We provide updated results about the link between student loan debt and emergency savings with financial stress, and after conditioning for differences in social and personal resources. We use the stress process model framework and data from the 2020 Study on Collegiate Financial Wellness ( N = 25,310) to estimate ordered probit regression models. The 2020 data confirm that students report higher levels of stress if they hold more loan debt and have lower emergency savings. Students with higher levels of financial socialization and financial self‐efficacy experience less financial stress and experience more stress when they report both positive and negative financial management behaviors. Among student‐borrowers, the role of social and personal resources is weakened. The data confirm ongoing financial stress among college students and points to the important role of financial socialization through parents and financial skill in students' ability to cope with financial stress.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Trajectories of affective and cognitive well‐being at times of COVID‐19 containment policies in Italy

  Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy · 2024-02-03 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This paper draws on a subsample (N=851) of respondents to ITA.LI - Italian Lives - a recently established panel study on a probability sample of individuals aged 16+ living in Italy - to track changes in the affective (positive and negative emotions such as energy and sadness) and cognitive (life satisfaction) components of well-being during different COVID-19 policy phases, classified according to the severity of key government responses. An event-study design is employed, which uses mixed-effects ordered logistic models to investigate the change in SWB scores. Given the nested nature of the data, multilevel modelling is chosen as the most appropriate method of analysis. The results reveal the levels of affective and cognitive well-being were significantly lower during the lockdown period than before the pandemic outbreak potentially reflecting both the direct effects of the confinement and other potential sources of distress, such as trends in infection rates and related media alarm. Once the lockdown was lifted, there was no evidence of an immediate and general improvement in well-being. In the following policy phase, with the lifting of most containment measures, there were significant signs of full recovery concerning energy, but the scores for the other well-being components remained relatively lower than those observed before the onset of COVID-19.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Parents' Work Hours and Childcare Decisions: Exploiting a Time Windfall

  2023-11-30

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We model the conditions under which parents optimally reallocate time to childcare when an outside agent exogenously restricts the number of hours an employer can demand of a working parent. Theoretically, when the restriction binds, a parent's available time increases. We exploit a series of voluntary and mandated labor-market reforms in South Korea that regulated the statutory and maximum work hours of parents. The government implemented the laws in stages by industry and size of firms. This implementation process generates exogenous variation across families where one or both partners worked at jobs that were or were not affected by the reform. We show the reforms affected work hours and use the predicted changes to investigate the total amount they spent on paid childcare and whether or not they changed the relative use of market and parental care. When fathers get more time (work less), parents spend less money on childcare. A change in mother's work time does not affect expenditures. When parents get more time, they are more likely to spend money on paid childcare for school-age children and more likely to use private academies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Harmonization of Panel Surveys: The Cross‐National Equivalent File

  2023-11-10 · 4 citations

  other1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter describes the Cross-National Equivalent File project (CNEF) – a project that harmonizes data from ongoing longitudinal surveys in 10 countries. CNEF is a compendium of data from general population household-based panels in Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We introduce CNEF – its genesis, the research infrastructure it operates on, and the structure of the CNEF database. Next, we discuss major issues specific to the project's cross-national harmonization of panel data. Regarding substantive variables, CNEF staff harmonize data for which there exist concepts that have clear theoretical definitions, are measured in objective units, and are, in principle, independent of country-specific culture. Hence, CNEF harmonizes data to empirically measure two types of conceptual variables: (i) concepts that are defined by objective conditions in the physical world (e.g. age, biological sex, pregnancy, etc.), and (ii) abstract concepts that can be defined rather precisely and are measured in objective units, such as income (household and personal), occupation, and health, among others. While harmonization of cross-sectional and longitudinal data requires the same attention to comparability of data across countries, longitudinal data additionally require attention to comparability over time. In discussing CNEF's evolution, we reflect on (i) lessons learned, (ii) how harmonization of existing data has influenced CNEF panel members to adopt harmonized survey questions, and (iii) challenges pertaining both to harmonization per se and its documentation. When CNEF partners to harmonize already collected data, they naturally discuss and sometimes coordinate to harmonize questions or survey designs in advance of the survey going into the field. We conclude with a brief outline of recommendations for researchers interested in harmonizing existing panel survey data.

  PublisherDOI

• Cross‐National Research: Realised and Potential Contributions

  Australian Economic Review · 2021-10-01 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The HILDA Survey is one of a small but growing number of household‐based, country‐specific longitudinal studies that share similar designs and data on individual and household social and economic wellbeing. All track outcomes over time as individuals dynamically form and dissolve personal and professional relationships. The similarities of the data invite researchers to study, compare and contrast social and economic outcomes of Australians with outcomes of residents of other countries. This review summarises published comparative research that uses HILDA data, notes how HILDA contributes, and highlights how and on what topics scholars might use HILDA data to generate additional insights.

  PublisherDOI

• A Cross-National Design to Estimate Effects of COVID-Induced Non-Pharmacological Interventions

  DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · 2020-05-20 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We describe a research initiative that will explore the economic and social effects not of the COVID-19 itself but of the policies and information environment that COVID-19 spawned. We will exploit the substantial intra and inter-country temporal and geographic variation in non- pharmacological intervention policies induced by the COVID-19 disease. We will use data from ongoing household-based panel studies from 10 countries and rich administrative data from an eleventh. Six of the ten household panels have already fielded or will shortly field COVID-related questions to their main samples. A seventh, the PSID, has fielded questions to samples of the Child Development Supplement and Transition into Adulthood Supplement. The PSID and the other three panels will include COVID related questions in their next regular survey. All of them will be completed in 2021.

  PublisherDOI

• The Economics of Nicotine Consumption

  2020 · 6 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Social Science
  • Economics

  The development of nicotine replacement therapies and e-cigarettes emphasize and highlight that, in tobacco demand, nicotine is one of, if not, the primary object people want. This chapter presents a simple model of utility maximization that focuses specifically on nicotine as the object of interest. It yields a derived demand for a nicotine delivery technology and predictions researchers can use to account for patterns in consumption over the life-cycle of individuals and the market as a whole. The model is informed by available evidence about the neurological effects of nicotine and differences in the relative efficiency and associated physical costs of nicotine delivery devices, and genetic differences across individuals that partly explains variation in nicotine consumption. The analysis highlights that one of the key theoretical objects of interest is the price per unit of nicotine delivered to the brain. The limited empirical literature on ecigarettes does not measure that price. All told, economists have much to offer in modeling and empirically studying demand for the new nicotine delivery products. In addition, a range of studies could look back, reconfigure prices and measured consumption, to better explain patterns in historical time-series data on consumption and substitution across different nicotine delivery devices.

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction to the special issue “Understanding social dynamics: 20 years of the swiss household panel”

  Swiss Journal of Sociology · 2020-11-26 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Sciendo provides publishing services and solutions to academic and professional organizations and individual authors. We publish journals, books, conference proceedings and a variety of other publications.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Economics of Nicotine Consumption

  2020-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R03AG021014

  NIH · $158k · 2007

• Cross-National Patterns and Predictors of Life-cycle Smoking Behavior

  NIH · $2.5M · 2009–2016

• Strategic Targeting of Price Discounts for Cigarettes: Firm and Consumer Behavior

  NIH · $713k · 2007–2011

• Alcohol Advertising, Drinking and Driving: A Study of Underage Youth and Adults

  NIH · $1.0M · 2012–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Donald Kenkel

  Cornell University

  51 shared

• Rebekka Christopoulou

  University of Macedonia

  43 shared

• Richard V. Burkhauser

  41 shared

• Alan Mathios

  Cornell University

  41 shared

• Oliver Lipps

  FORS – Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences

  31 shared

• Stephen P. Jenkins

  30 shared

• Mark Wooden

  Federal Institute for Population Research

  30 shared

• Rosemary J. Avery

  26 shared