Manita Rao

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Pensions and retirement savings, public finance, urban economics.

ABOUT

Manita Rao, PhD, is a Senior Policy Advisor on the financial security team at the AARP Public Policy Institute. She is also a Visiting Scholar at the Pension Research Council at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Non-Resident Scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Retirement Initiatives. She specializes in retirement savings and Social Security policy, household finance, financial resilience, and economic mobility.

Rao's research examines how the retirement savings system, Social Security, and emergency savings shape household financial security across the life course, with particular attention to the policies that expand savings coverage and the drivers of wealth inequality. Her recent work spans the effects of state-facilitated auto-IRA programs on retirement preparedness and Social Security claiming, liquidity, and financial resilience among older households, and disparities in retirement wealth. Her research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Public Economics and Work, Aging and Retirement. She regularly translates scholarly evidence into accessible analysis for policymakers and the public.

Before joining AARP, Rao was an assistant professor of public policy, and earlier, a senior research associate with international development think tanks, where she worked with banking regulators and organizations such as the World Bank on expanding access to financial services. She also helped lead a legislative campaign that established education as a fundamental right for all Indian citizens. She is a member of the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management and the National Tax Association.

Rao holds a PhD in public policy from the University of Southern California, a master's in policy and evaluation from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a master's in social policy from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India.

CONTACT

Email: mrao@aarp.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manita-rao/

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