About

Sewin Chan is an economist whose research focuses on economic and financial risks faced by households as they interact with housing, labor, and credit markets. She has studied mortgages and housing market risk, rental markets, consumer credit behavior, pensions, work and retirement decisions, job loss, geographic mobility, and accessible housing. Dr. Chan was previously a member of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans. She holds a B.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Labour economics
• Economics
• Psychology
• Demographic economics
• Business
• Gerontology
• Law
• Developmental psychology
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Older Households Are Moving Closer to Their Adult Children: Implications for Urban Planning and Housing Policy

  Housing Policy Debate · 2026-05-18

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Older Households are Moving Closer to their Adult Children: Implications for Urban Planning and Housing Policy

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Moving back: Spatial and demographic differences in boomeranging to parents

  Journal of Urban Affairs · 2025-03-06 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Fiscal Stimulus or Debt Relief: The Effect of Federal Pandemic Aid on State and Local Pensions

  National Tax Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Household Responses to Guaranteed Income: Experimental Evidence from Compton, California

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-11-01 · 4 citations

  reportOpen access

  We study the effects of a two-year unconditional cash transfer program for lowincome households in Compton, California between 2021 and 2023.695 households were randomly assigned to receive transfers averaging about $500 per month over a two year period, with 1,402 households randomly assigned to a control group.To measure the impact of transfer frequency, half of the recipients were paid twice per month and the other half received quarterly transfers.We surveyed 1,074 respondents 18 months after the beginning of transfers.Receiving guaranteed income had no impact on the labor supply of full-time workers, but part-time workers (at baseline) had lower labor market participation by 13 percentage points.Income (excluding the transfer) was reduced by $333 per month on average relative to control households, and expenditures were reduced by $302 per month.At the same time, average non-housing debt balances declined by $2,190 over 18 months relative to the control group, although the drop is not statistically significant.We find a significant improvement in housing security, but no overall effects on indices of psychological and financial well-being.The recipients of twice-monthly transfers were more likely to own a car, had lower credit card debt and greater food security than recipients of quarterly transfers, but otherwise transfer frequency had little impact.Compared to male recipients, female recipients reported a greater increase in financial security, and a smaller reduction in earned income and expenditures.

  PublisherDOI

• Household Responses to Guaranteed Income: Experimental Evidence from Compton, California

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Next to kin: How children influence the residential mobility decisions of older adults

  The Journal of the Economics of Ageing · 2022 · 5 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Gerontology
  PublisherDOI

• Migration choices of the boomerang generation: Does returning home dampen labor market adjustment?

  Journal of Housing Economics · 2021 · 12 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Economics
  • Labour economics
  • Demographic economics
  PublisherDOI

• Effects of an Unconditional Cash Transfer on the Economic and Psychological Well-being of Low-Income Households in Compton, CA

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2021-05-21

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• Next to Kin: How Children Influence the Housing and Mobility Decisions of Older Adults

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2021-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• `Collaborative Research: How Does Knowledge Affect Behavior? The Role of Pension Knowledge in Retirement-Related Decisions

  NSF · $10k · 2005–2009

Frequent coauthors

• Ann Huff Stevens

  28 shared

• Vicki Been

  New York Law School

  19 shared

• Andrew F. Haughwout

  17 shared

• Joseph Tracy

  15 shared

• Ingrid Gould Ellen

  New York University

  12 shared

• Katherine M. O’Regan

  10 shared

• Michael Gedal

  New York University

  9 shared

• Jaclene Begley

  5 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Cambridge University

• Ph.D., economics

  Columbia University