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In Memory of Professor Susanne Rässler

On the 29th of August 2018, Susanne Rässler, long-term associate editor of the Journal of Official Statistics, died far too early at the age of 55. All who knew her agree that she was a very special person. As Danny Pfeffermann said: “You could not just be a colleague. You had to be a friend.” Susanne received her PhD in Statistics from the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) in Germany in 1995 with a thesis comparing several estimators in unequal probability sampling. Following an offer to join the Department of Statistics and Econometrics at the FAU as a faculty member, she started her research in the field of statistical matching of multiple data sources, which culminated in her seminal book Statistical matching: A frequentist theory, practical applications, and alternative Bayesian approaches published in 2002. Two years later she temporarily left academia to accept a split appointment at the headquarters of the German Federal Employment Agency (BA) and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the research branch of the BA. Despite working at the BA and the IAB for only three years, Susanne had a lasting impact at both institutions. At the IAB she established the Department for Statistical Methods and initiated numerous research projects on missing data, sampling designs, multiple imputation, and statistical disclosure control. Under her guidance, the IAB got involved in cutting edge research on methodological questions related to official statistics. As early as 2005, the institute experimented with split questionnaire designs to reduce the response burden of survey participants and to increase the quality of the gathered information. The institute was also the first statistical agency outside the United States to release multiply-imputed synthetic datasets to facilitate access to its highly sensitive establishment survey data for external researchers. Arguably, the most influential project initiated during her time at the IAB was a joint research project between the institute, the BA and Harvard University called TrEffeR (Treatment Effects and Prediction). The joint research enabled the BA for the first time to obtain detailed evaluations of its training measures based on the potential outcomes approach for causal inference (Rubin’s Causal Model). The sophisticated procedures for matching treated and controls using the rich administrative databases available at the BA are still used today to evaluate all labor market programs offered by the Federal Employment Agency as well as for evaluating the relative effectiveness of the different providers of these programs. In 2007 Susanne was appointed to the Chair of Statistics and Econometrics at the University of Bamberg, a position she held until her death. Because of her charming and warm personality, at Bamberg she was equally popular among students and academic colleagues, and her numerous committee positions within the faculty are testimony of her tireless commitment and dedication. In 2010 she initiated a new master’s program in