Person Category: All Faculty

Minjee Kim

August 12, 2024/in Real Estate Development, Urban Planning Equitable Development, Land Use Regulation, Public Private Development, Real Estate Development, Urban Public Finance, Zoning All Faculty, Senate / Practicum / Adjunct Faculty Faculty /by Ervin Huang

Minjee Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Urban Planning department at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Her research is situated at the intersection of real estate development and urban planning. She writes about land use regulation, large-scale real estate developments, exactions, negotiated developments, and urban public finance. Her goal as a planning scholar is to identify the ways in which planners and policymakers can foster equitable real estate developments.

Her solo-authored works have appeared in high impact planning journals such as the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Literature, and Urban Studies. She has been recognized both nationally and internationally as an emerging expert in US land use regulation and zoning. She served as the U.S. expert on Lincoln Institute’s joint effort with the OECD to promote land-based public finance. She also has been engendering a close working relationship with real estate industry professionals. She served as the chair of the DEI committee for ULI North Florida and is the sole author of the report, Creating Diverse and Inclusive Communities, published by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing. Equipped with an understanding of the economics, processes, and politics of real estate development, she sees herself as bridging the real estate and planning fields.

Minjee received a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning and Master’s in City Planning from MIT. During her time in Boston, she worked in the cities of Cambridge and Boston’s planning departments to obtain hands-on planning experience. She was previously an Assistant Professor at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the Florida State University from 2019 to 2024.

Selected Publications:

Kim, M., Malizia, E., Nelson, M., Wolf-Powers, L., Ganning, J., & Schrock, G. (2024). Real Estate Development and Economic Development Planning Education: Pragmatic Turn or Trojan Horse? Journal of Planning Education and Research.

Kim, M., & Lee, H. (2023). Can U.S. Planned Communities Become Diverse? The case of industry-leading master-planned communities in five metro areas. Journal of Urban Affairs.

Kim, M. (2023). The Case for Mass Upzoning. Housing Policy Debate.

Kim, M. (2023). Infrastructure investments and land value capture: Variations and uncertainties at the frontiers of urban expansion. Town Planning Review.

Kim, M. (2023). Taking Stock of What We Know About Large-Scale Urban Development Projects: A Review of Existing Theoretical Frameworks and Case Studies. Journal of Planning Literature.

Kim, M., & Chapin, T. (2022). Who Benefits from Enterprise Zones? Equity implications gleaned from policy design and implementation regulations. Cities.

Kim, M., & Zhou, T. (2021). Does Restricting the Entry of Formula Businesses Help Mom-and-pop Stores? The case of American towns with unique community character. Economic Development Quarterly.

Kim, M. (2021). How Do Tax-based Revitalization Policies Affect Urban Property Development? Evidence from Bronzeville, Chicago. Urban Studies.

Kim, M. (2020). Negotiation or Schedule-based? Examining the strengths and weaknesses of the public benefit exaction strategies of Boston and Seattle. Journal of the American Planning Association.

Kim, M. (2020). Upzoning and Value Capture: How U.S. local governments use land use regulation power to create and capture value from real estate developments. Land Use Policy.

Poco D. Kernsmith

July 9, 2024/in Social Welfare Criminal/Legal Systems, School Culture and Climate, Sexual and Gender Identity and Expression, Violence Prevention, Youth Violence Perpetration All Faculty, Senate / Practicum / Adjunct Faculty Faculty /by Oliver Ike

Dr. Poco D. Kernsmith is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Welfare. Dr. Kernsmith has integrated practice and research experience in the development and implementation of several federally funded research and intervention projects, focusing on the etiology and prevention of perpetration of violence by youth among peers, in families, and in intimate relationships. These projects include a longitudinal study on the modifiable protective factors to prevent intimate partner and sexual violence perpetration, and the development and evaluation of school-based violence prevention programs in university and middle school settings. Dr. Kernsmith is currently studying how school policies can help create inclusive, trauma-informed environments to prevent and respond to violence or threats of violence in middle and high schools.

Dr. Kernsmith’s research has been funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Justice, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and the Michigan State Policy Center. Dr. Kernsmith’s additional research areas include inclusive and comprehensive sexual health education, water justice, collective trauma, and community-based strategies to prevent hate-motivated violence and domestic terrorism. Dr. Kernsmith has also volunteered with the American Civil Liberties Union to support efforts related to reform of the criminal legal system.

Dr. Kernsmith has primarily taught classes in research methods at the BSW, MSW, and PhD levels, as well as courses related to violence prevention and intervention. As the PhD program director at two universities, Dr. Kernsmith engaged in efforts to assess structural barriers to student success and engaged in systems change to promote equity and inclusion in the academic system. Dr. Kernsmith is engaged in ongoing research to assess disparities in mentorship of doctoral students.

Sicong (Summer) Sun

July 1, 2024/in Social Welfare Equity, Financial Capability and Asset Building, Health Disparities, Immigration, Mental health, Poverty, Quantitative Analysis, Race and Ethnicity All Faculty, Senate / Practicum / Adjunct Faculty Faculty /by Oliver Ike

Sicong “Summer” Sun (they/them) is an Assistant Professor of Social Welfare at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Born and raised in China, Dr. Sun is a first-generation immigrant and a nonbinary queer scholar. They hold a Ph.D. in Social Work and a Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. Before joining UCLA, Dr. Sun was a faculty member at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare.

Dr. Sun is broadly interested in race, ethnicity, and immigration, poverty and inequality, social determinants of health, and health equity. As an applied interdisciplinary researcher, their scholarship centers on conceptual and empirical understanding of the intersections of racism, poverty, and health. Central to Dr. Sun’s work is investigating how racial/ethnic inequities in asset holding and financial capability—rooted in historical and contemporary structural racism—serve as upstream social determinants that fundamentally shape the downstream determinants of health and wellbeing across the lifespan. Their recent project examines racial/ethnic differences in the relationship between wealth and health. Dr. Sun’s research aims to inform social policies and programs to advance racial, socioeconomic, and health equity in the U.S. and global contexts.

Dr. Sun’s research has been published in multidisciplinary journals, including the Annual Review of Public Health, SSM-Population Health, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Children and Youth Services Review, and Journal of Family and Economic Issues. Among other awards, they have received the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Society for Social Work Research and the Jane Aron Fellowship from the National Association of Social Workers Foundation.

Selected publications:

Sun, S., Chiang, C. J., & Hudson, D. (2024). Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Association Between Parental Wealth and Child Behavioral Problems. Children and Youth Services Review.

Sun, S. (2023). Racial/Ethnic Heterogeneity in Parental Wealth and Substance Use from Adolescence to Young Adulthood. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

Sun, S. (2023). Building Financial Capability and Assets to Reduce Poverty and Health Disparities: Race/Ethnicity Matters. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 1-20.

Sun, S. , Lee, H., & Hudson, D. (2023). Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Relationship Between Wealth and Health Across Young Adulthood. SSM – Population Health.

Ansong, D., Okumu, M., Huang, J., Sun, S., Huseynli, A., Chowa, G., Ssewamala, F., Sherraden M.S. & Sherraden, M. (2023). Financial Capability and Asset Building: Innovations in Social Protection and Development in Handbook on Social Protection and Social Development in the Global South Edited by Patel, L., Plagerson S., & Chinyoka I.

Chen, Y. C., & Sun, S. (2023). Gender Differences in the Relationship between Financial Capability and Health in Later Life: Evidence from Hong Kong. Innovation in Aging, igad072.

Sun, S. & Chen, Y. C. (2022). Is financial capability a determinant of health? Theory and evidence. Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Sun, S. Chen, Y. C., Ansong, D., Huang, J., & Sherraden, M.S. (2022). Household financial capability and economic hardship: An empirical examination of the financial capability theory. Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Sun, S. Huang, J, Hudson, D., Sherraden, M. (2021) Cash transfers and health. Annual Review of Public Health

Tozan, Y., Capasso, A., Sun, S., Neilands, T. B., Damulira, C., Namuwonge F., Nakigozi G., Bahar, O. S., Nabunya, P. Mellins, C. Mckay M. M., & Ssewamala, F. M. (2021). Effects and cost-effectiveness evaluation of a family economic empowerment intervention to increase ARV Adherence among HIV+ adolescents in Uganda. Journal of the International AIDS Society.

Ssewamala, F.M., Wang, J. S. H., Brathwaite, R., Sun, S., Mayo-Wilson, L.J., Neilands, T.B., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2021) Impact of a Family Economic Intervention on Health functioning of Adolescents Impacted by HIV/AIDS: A 5-year Randomized Controlled Trial in Uganda. American Journal of Public Health

Sun, S., Nabunya, P., Byansi, W., Bahar, O. S., Damulira, C., Neilands, T. B., Guo, S., Namuwonge, F. & Ssewamala, F. M. (2020). Access and utilization of financial services among poor HIV-impacted children and families in Uganda. Children and Youth Services Review, 104730.

Tozan, Y., Sun, S., Capasso, A., Wang, J. S. H., Neilands, T. B., Bahar, O. S., Damulira, C. & Ssewamala, F. M. (2019). Evaluation of a savings-led family-based economic empowerment intervention for AIDS-affected adolescents in Uganda: A four-year follow-up on efficacy and cost-effectiveness. PLOS ONE 14(12).

Courses of instruction in the program: Foundations of Social Welfare Policy; HBSE: Theoretical Perspectives in Social Work and Social Welfare

For full list of publications please visit their page at:

Google scholar: ‪Sicong (Summer) Sun – ‪Google Scholar

Research Gate: Sicong Sun (researchgate.net)

Connect with them on X: @drsummersun

Corey J. Matthews

June 28, 2024/in Public Policy Change Management, Leadership, Nonprofit Organizations, Social Change, Strategic Planning All Faculty Faculty /by Ronaldo Avina

Corey Matthews is a social change leader with 15 years of experience designing, evaluating, and leading community-based programs to advance more positive outcomes for historically at-risk populations. He currently serves as a Vice President of Global Philanthropy with JPMorgan Chase where he helps to manage a grant portfolio in Los Angeles that aligns with the strategic impact objectives of the company. He also plays a key role in building partnerships to bolster the company’s overarching Corporate Responsibility initiatives in the region.

Previously, Corey served as the Chief Operating Officer of Community Coalition – a permanent community-based institution in South Los Angeles – where he participated on the executive team to advance a robust policy agenda, direct operations, guide organization-wide strategic planning processes and launch key projects. Throughout his professional career, Corey has facilitated initiatives to serve underrepresented communities and has worked in think tanks, local government and nonprofits committed to changing systems and reducing poverty. Corey also co-leads Coaching Transitions LLC — a boutique executive coaching and organizational change management company.

He is a native of South (Central) Los Angeles, and he is committed to disrupting systems to ensure equity for all communities through data-centered leadership development that moves people, organizations, and initiatives across sectors to solve some of society’s most urgent issues.

Katelyn Choe

February 29, 2024/in Public Policy All Faculty Faculty /by Ronaldo Avina

Katelyn Choe is a U.S. diplomat with 23 years of experience in international relations, government affairs, and leadership management overseeing large, multicultural teams. Some of her previous diplomatic tours include The Netherlands, Afghanistan, Nepal, New Zealand, and South Korea. In her current role as Diplomat in Residence (DIR) for Southern CA, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, Katelyn is the primary recruiter for the U.S. Department of State and provides guidance and advice on careers, internships, and fellowships to students and professionals interested in pursuing a career in diplomacy.

Katelyn learned about a career in diplomacy as a Pickering Fellow during her senior year in college and received her Master’s Degree from Columbia University, which was fully funded by the State Department. In her current role as the DIR, she wants to help build a diverse and representative Diplomatic Corps that reflects and represents America, one where diversity and inclusion make us stronger, smarter, and innovative.

Feel free to schedule a meeting with her via her Calendar link.

Bianca D.M. Wilson

February 14, 2024/in Social Welfare LGBTQ+ youth in systems Bianca Wilson All Faculty, Senate / Practicum / Adjunct Faculty Faculty /by Oliver Ike

Bianca D.M. Wilson, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Welfare at the Luskin School of Public Affairs and an affiliate faculty member of the California Center for Population Research at UCLA. Her research explores the relationships between culture, oppression, and health. Dr. Wilson examines LGBTQ economic instabilities and involvement with systems of care and criminalization, with a focus on the ways racialization, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression play a role in creating disproportionality and disparities.

Notably, she was the lead investigator on the first study to establish population estimates of how many LGBTQ youth are in foster care and has led similar work in juvenile criminalization. Similarly, she has led the largest qualitative study of the life and needs of LGBTQ people experiencing economic insecurity. Acknowledging the impact of this work, she was awarded the Distinguished Contribution to Public Policy Award by the American Psychological Association Division 44 (Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity). Underlying her substantive works on LGBTQ, health, system involvement and economic security is her attention to sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression (SOGIE) data collection and data policy. She has conducted SOGIE measurement research among youth and adults and continues to work with local, state and federal government efforts on increasing and improving LGBTQ inclusive data collection. She served on the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Consensus Panel on the Measurement of Sex, Gender and Sexual Orientation- a report commissioned by the National Institutes of Health in the interest of informing data policy and practices in federal data collection. She is currently serving as a scientific committee member of NASEM’s Assessment of NIH Research on Women’s Health consensus study.

She was previously a Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at the UCLA School of Law, and before that an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Wilson earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from the Community and Prevention Research program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) with a minor in Statistics, Methods, and Measurement, and received postdoctoral training at the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies and the UCSF Lesbian Health and Research Center through an Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) postdoctoral fellowship.

Susan Lares-Nakaoka

July 1, 2023/in Social Welfare Asian American Communities, Community Development, Critical Race Theory, Nonprofits/Nongovernmental Organizations, Race and Ethnicity, Social Movements All Faculty, Senate / Practicum / Adjunct Faculty Faculty /by Oliver Ike

Dr. Susan Lares-Nakaoka is the Director of Practicum Education in the Department of Social Welfare in the Luskin School of Public Affairs. As a third generation Japanese American/Chicana, her family’s World War II incarceration informs her teaching, scholarship and commitment to racial justice. She credits her UCLA undergraduate internship in a gang diversion program at Nickerson Gardens in Watts for sparking her career in social work.

Dr. Lares-Nakaoka’s research and writing focuses on the intersection of race and community development, critical race pedagogy and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. She is lead author on a forthcoming book, “Critical Race Theory in Social Work,” and editor of an upcoming special issue of the Journal of Community Practice on race and social justice entitled, “Necessary Interventions: “Racing” Community Practice.”

As a critical race scholar, Dr. Lares-Nakaoka is co-founder and co-director of the Critical Race Scholars in Social Work (CRSSW) collective. CRSSW, a network of over 300 individuals, advances race scholarship in social work through a schedule of regular events and a bi-annual conference focusing on applying critical race theory within social work research, writing, education and practice.

Dr. Lares-Nakaoka spent over 12 years providing social services and program development for low-income residents across the country, including positions with the Housing Authority, City of Los Angeles, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Venice Community Housing. Her experiences as Director of Practicum Education at CSU Dominguez Hills, the first MSW program with a critical race theory perspective, was foundational to her approach to social work pedagogy. Prior to coming to UCLA, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii, CSU Sacramento and CSU Long Beach.

Academic mentors/advisors

Dr. Melvin Oliver, Yuji Ichioka, Dr. Harry H.L. Kitano, Dr. Mitchell T. Maki, Dr. Daniel Solorzano, and Dr. Lois Takahashi. Special gratitude goes to her beloved doctoral advisor, Dr. Leobardo Estrada.

Selected Community-based Research Projects

Photovoice project on the impacts of transit-oriented development in Little Tokyo

Case Studies of community development organizations: Little Tokyo Service Center (Los Angeles), Chinatown Community Development Center (San Francisco) , InterIm Community Development Association (Seattle) and Hoʻokuaʻāina (Kailua, HI)

Oral histories of Japanese American women activists, descendants of the Sacramento River Delta, and World War II Nisei Cadet Nurses.

Recent Publications

Nakaoka, S., Aldana, A. and Ortiz, L. (2023). “Dismantling Whiteness in Ways of Knowing.” In Social Work, White Supremacy, and Racial Justice. Oxford University Press.

Aldana, A., Nakaoka, S., Vazquez, N. and Ortiz, L. (2023). “Fifteen Years of Critical Race Theory in Social Work Education: What We’ve Learned.” In Social Work, White Supremacy, and Racial Justice. Oxford University Press.

Ortiz, L. and Nakaoka, S. (2023). Critical Race Theory in Social Work. Social Work Encyclopedia. Oxford Research Encyclopedias.

Maglalang, D.D., Sangalang, C.C., Mitchell, F.M., Lechuga-Peña, S., & Nakaoka, S.J. (2021). “The Movement for Ethnic Studies: A Tool of Resistance and Self-Determination for Social Work Education.” Journal of Social Work Education.

Nakaoka, S., Ka‘opua, L., and Ono, M. (2019). “He Ala Kuikui Lima Kanaka: The Journey Towards Indigenizing a School of Social Work.” Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, and Practice. 7 (1).

Agres, B., Dillard, A., Enos, K., Kakesako, B., Kekauoha, B., Nakaoka, S. and Umemoto, K. (2019). “Sustaining University-Community Partnerships in Indigenous Communities: Five Lessons from Papakōlea.” AAPI Nexus. 16 (1&2).

Nakaoka, S., Ortiz, L. and Garcia, Betty. (2019). “Intentionally Weaving Critical Race Theory in an MSW Program at a Hispanic Serving Institution.” Urban Social Work.

Tatiana Londoño

July 1, 2023/in Social Welfare Latine/x Youth and Families, Mental and Behavioral Health, Migration and Immigrant Health All Faculty, Senate / Practicum / Adjunct Faculty Faculty /by Oliver Ike

Dr. Tatiana Londoño is a first-generation Latina born in Colombia and raised in Miami, Florida. Dr. Londoño graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior and from The University of Texas at Austin with an M.S.S.W. and then her Ph.D. Throughout her career, she has received funding from various sources such as OLLI NOVA Diversity Scholarship, St. David’s Foundation, Integrated Behavioral Health Scholars Program, and QuestBridge.

Tatiana Londoño’s scholarship focuses on the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of Latine/x immigrant youth and their families, with an emphasis on the experiences and impact of migration. Specifically, her work explores how Latine/x immigrant youth and families navigate and adapt to the psychosocial consequences of migration and resettlement. She is particularly interested in how these experiences contribute to various outcomes, such as distress and post-traumatic growth, and how family processes can mitigate some of these outcomes. Her long-term goal is to incorporate her research into brief preventative interventions accessible to Latine/x immigrant populations in the U.S. Her work is published in Family Process, The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Health Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Research, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, and Social Work in Mental Health. She has also published policy and research briefs with the Children’s Defense Fund and the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare.

Dr. Londoño is currently involved in several National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded studies concerning the mental health and psychosocial well-being of Latine/x youth and their families. She is using a mixed-method approach to explore the effects of migration and immigration detention on asylum-seeking children and families from Central America. Specifically, she is analyzing 1) migration trauma exposure and mental health outcomes among immigrant youth; 2) how migration shapes parent-child relationships; and 3) different trajectories of wellbeing among youth in the U.S. resettlement context and environmental contexts (e.g., neighborhood, school, immigration enforcement) that contribute to these trajectories. In addition to this project, she is currently investigating the cultural adaptation and implementation of a parenting intervention that integrates experiences of immigration-related challenges, discrimination, and biculturalism.

Dr. Londoño’s previous research projects include: (1) exploring why adolescent Latinas attempt suicide more than other females; (2) examining the effects of immigration enforcement on U.S. citizen children of undocumented Mexican parents; (3) investigating service experiences of youth transitioning from child to adult mental health systems; (4) studying depression and suicidality among Mexican-American children and youth; and (5) assessing smoking dependence among Spanish-speaking Latine/x smokers.

Dr. Londoño also engages in needs assessment and evaluation research related to the communities she serves. She led the analysis of a campus-wide survey on assessing the needs of undocumented students at UT Austin and, with the Rooted Collective Task Force, drafted a proposal in support of a center for undocumented students. Dr. Londoño is also evaluating the Mental Health Collaborative at Girasol, a program that serves Texas immigrant children and families and educates service providers working with immigrant populations.

In the community, Dr. Londoño has worked in various settings such as schools, domestic violence agencies, and integrated behavioral health primary care clinics providing counseling, psychoeducation, and case management services to mostly Spanish-speaking families who experienced immigration-related trauma. Tatiana continues to volunteer her time to support immigrant families in detention with their credible fear interviews and orient asylum-seeking families at immigrant resource centers. She is currently the lead consultant on a project with New Mexico State University creating a trauma-informed training series for service providers working with Latine/x immigrant populations. This work is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Dr. Londoño has also created an asynchronous training on inclusive, trauma-informed practices with immigrants alongside the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare that can be found here.

Professor Londoño teaches the following courses: 211A: Human Behavior in Social Environment.

You can follow Dr. Londoño on Twitter: @TatianaL924

Wesley Yin

June 30, 2023/in Public Policy Consumer Finance, Economic Development, Economics, Equity, Health Care, Labor and Employment, Public Finance Wesley Yin All Faculty, Ladder Faculty Faculty /by Mary Braswell

Wesley “Wes” Yin is a Professor of Economics at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and the Anderson School of Management. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT. He is currently on leave during the 2023-2024 year, serving as Chief Economist of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Yin’s research focuses on health care, consumer finance, and economic inequality. His recent work studies competition and market power in health care, and the links between health care financing and consumer financial health and well-being.

His work has been published in leading economics and policy outlets such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Economic Review, the Review of Economics and Statistics, JAMA, Health Affairs, and the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, and has been covered by the New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, Forbes, The Guardian, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, Vox, and others.

From 2012 to 2014, Yin served in the Obama Administration as Acting Chief Economist and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Microeconomic Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and in the White House Council of Economic Advisers, advancing policing on health care quality, insurance affordability, higher education finance, and housing market stability. Since 2014, Yin has advised the state of California on health care reforms, including the design of state subsidies for marketplace insurance.

Previously, he was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago and Boston University, and a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy at Harvard University. He received his PhD in economics from Princeton University.

Working Papers

The Effects of Medical Debt Relief: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments (with Ray Kluender, Neale Mahoney and Francis Wong). NBER Working Paper #32315, April 2024. Conditionally accepted at The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Pre-registrations: J-PAL Summary. AEA Pre-registration 1 (Collector Debt). AEA Pre-registration 2 (Hospital Debt). Media coverage: New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, St. Louis Public Radio, Bloomberg, Vox, The Atlantic, Vox Today, Explained (Podcast), Tradeoffs (Podcast)

Provider Market Power and Adverse Selection in Health Insurance Markets (with Nicholas Tilipman). Draft available, upon request.

Selected Publications

The Impact of Financial Assistance Programs on Health Care Utilization (with Alyce Adams, Ray Kluender, Neale Mahoney, Jinglin Wang, and Francis Wong). American Economic Review: Insights. 4(3), September 2022: 389-407. Online Appendix.

Personalized Telephone Outreach Increased Health Insurance Take-Up for Hard-to Reach Populations (w/ Rebecca Myerson, Nicholas Tilipman, Andrew Fehrer, Honglin Li, and Isaac Menashe) Health Affairs. 41(1): 129–137, January 2022.

Trends in Medical Debt During the COVID Pandemic (with Raymond Kluender, Benedict Guttman-Kenney, Neale Mahoney, Francis Wong, and Xuyang Xia) JAMA Health Forum 3(5):e221031, May 2022.

Medical Debt in the United States, 2009-2020 (with Ray Kluender, Neale Mahoney and Francis Wong) Journal of the American Medical Association 326(3), July 2021. Media Coverage: NY Times, Washington Post, Vox, Marketwatch, CBS Evening News, Marketplace. JAMA editorial.

The Role of Behavioral Frictions in Health Insurance Marketplace Enrollment and Risk: Evidence from a Field Experiment. (with Richard Domurat and Isaac Menashe) American Economic Review 111(5): 1549–1574 , May 2021. [Online Appendix] Media Coverage: Tradeoffs Podcast

The Market for High-Quality Medicine: Retail Chain Entry and Drug Quality in India. 2019. (with Daniel Bennett) Review of Economics and Statistics 101(1) p.76-90 [Appendix]

Insurers’ Negotiating Leverage and the External Effect of Medicare Part D. 2015. (with Darius Lakdawalla), Review of Economics and Statistics 97:2 p.314-331 (an earlier version appears as NBER working paper no. 16251). Media coverage: New Yorker

Value of Survival Gains in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (with John Penrod, J. Ross Maclean, Darius Lakdawalla and Tomas Philipson) American Journal of Managed Care 2012 Nov;18(11 Suppl):S257-64

R&D Policy, Agency Costs and Innovation in Personalized Medicine. 2009. Journal of Health Economics 28(5): 950-962.

Market Incentives and Pharmaceutical Innovation. 2008. Journal of Health Economics 27(4):1060-1077.

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines. 2010. (with Nava Ashraf and Dean Karlan) World Development 38(3): 333-344.

The Effect of the Medicare Part D Prescription Benefit on Drug Utilization and Expenditures (with Anirban Basu, James Zhang, Atonu Rabbani, David Meltzer, and Caleb Alexander) Lead article at Annals of Internal Medicine 148(3): 169-177. Annals’ Summary for Patients.

Designing Targeting Schemes with Poverty Maps: Does Disaggregation Help?. 2007. (with Berk Özler, Chris Elbers, Tomoki Fujii, Peter Lanjouw) Journal of Development Economics 83(1).

Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines. 2006. (with Nava Ashraf and Dean Karlan) Quarterly Journal of Economics 121(2). Winner of TIAA-CREF 2006 Certificate of Excellence.

Deposit Collectors (with Nava Ashraf and Dean Karlan). 2006. Advances in Economic Analysis & Policy 6(2), Article 5.

Robert Fairlie

June 27, 2023/in Public Policy Applied Microeconomics, Development, Education, Entrepreneurship, Immigration, Inequality, Information Technology, Labor, Race and Ethnicity All Faculty, Ladder Faculty Faculty /by Ronaldo Avina

I am a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at UCLA, and a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). I study a wide range of topics including entrepreneurship, education, labor, racial, gender and caste inequality, information technology, immigration, health, and development. I strive for my research to have a broad impact by providing rigorous, unbiased and objective evidence on questions that are important for society and often involve highly-charged policy debates. My methodological focus is on conducting randomized control field experiments, employing advanced econometric techniques and identification strategies, and working with and building large administrative datasets. Publications from my research have appeared in leading journals in economics, policy, management, science, and medicine.

I received a Ph.D. and M.A. from Northwestern University and B.A. with honors from Stanford University. I have held visiting positions at Stanford University, Yale University, UC Berkeley, and Australian National University. I have received funding for my research from the National Science Foundation, National Academies and Russell Sage Foundation as well as numerous government agencies and foundations, and have testified in front of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Department of Treasury, and the California State Assembly. Recent awards and honors include a joint resolution from the California State Assembly, Choice Academic Title award, and the Bradford-Osborne research award in both 2020 and 2021. I am regularly interviewed by the media to comment on economic, education, entrepreneurship, inequality and policy issues.

My new book on entrepreneurship, job creation and survival just came out at MIT Press.

For more information on my research, teaching, and policy work, please visit: https://rfairlie.sites.luskin.ucla.edu/

Minjee Kim

Katelyn Choe

Wesley Yin

Working Papers

Selected Publications

Other Publications and Policy Articles

Robert Fairlie

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