Roll’s research focuses on promoting asset building, debt management, and economic security in lower-income populations. Working within the Center for Social Development, where he is the director of research, he is involved in research on cash transfers, child savings, and the role of public and employer-based benefits programs in promoting (or harming) economic and social mobility. Roll serves as a co-lead of the Grand Challenges for Social Work Network to Reduce Extreme Economic Inequality.
His most recent work focuses on the role of cash transfer programs in improving household balance sheets and economic mobility outcomes, which includes studies of the Expanded Child Tax Credit and six guaranteed income experiments in Georgia, North Carolina and Missouri. He is also leading a 10-year study evaluating the impact of investing $5,000 on behalf of 300 low-income 7th graders in St. Louis.