Rouse's primary research interests are in labor economics with a focus on the economics of education. Rouse has served as an editor of the Journal of Labor Economics and is currently a senior editor of The Future of Children. She is the founding director of the Princeton University Education Research Section, is a member of the National Academy of Education and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 1998-99 she served a year in the White House at the National Economic Council and from 2009-2011 served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Ph.D. Harvard University.