RDRC — Fellows
Training Fellowships
2023-24 Training Fellows in Disability Policy Research
Post-Doctoral Fellow
- Roger Prudon (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Tinbergen Institute) is examining the impact of inadequate provision of mental health treatment on later-life outcomes such as education, employment, and receipt of disability benefits.
Pre-Doctoral Fellows
- Marai Hayes (Harvard University) is studying the effects of childhood health on later-life earnings and retirement wealth as well as the interaction between childhood health and racial disparities in wealth.
- Johnny Huynh (University of California, Los Angeles) is studying the impact of disability compensation on military veterans’ well-being.
- Sarah Kotb (Harvard University) is studying the design of public health insurance programs and its effects on welfare and public spending.
- Cesia Sanchez (University of California, Berkeley) is investigating how economic shocks experienced by early-career workers affect the retirement decisions of their parents.
2022-23 Training Fellows in Disability Policy Research
Post-Doctoral Fellow
- Zhixiu Yu (PhD University of Minnesota) is investigating the interplay between social insurance programs and household-level decisions that bear on health outcomes in underrepresented populations.
Pre-Doctoral Fellows
- Johnny Huynh (University of California, Los Angeles) is studying the impact of disability compensation on military veterans’ well-being.
- Ari Ne'eman (Harvard University, Health Policy and Political Analysis) is analyzing how changes in Medicaid policy affect the utilization of long-term services and supports as well as disability employment outcomes.
- Cesia Sanchez (University of California, Berkeley) is investigating how economic shocks experienced by early-career workers affect the retirement decisions of their parents.
- Christiane Szerman (Princeton) is studying the impact of affirmative action regulations on workers and firms.
2021-22 Training Fellows in Disability Policy Research
Post-Doctoral Fellows
- Kuan-Ming Chen (PhD University of Chicago) is interested in a wide variety of topics in labor and health economics. He studies field experiments or reforms that serve as quasi-experiments, and then combines these estimates with microdata to build empirical models to study policy-relevant questions. His current research focuses on long-term care and its implications for families.
- Maxwell Kellogg (PhD University of Chicago) studies how links between employment, health insurance coverage, and the household affect who uses and benefits from public disability insurance programs. Max will be joining the economics faculty at the University of Oslo after completing his fellowship.
Pre-Doctoral Fellows
- Jonathan Cohen (MIT, Economics) studies unemployment insurance, including a historical German firm-side policy intended to decrease the usage of unemployment insurance as a bridge to retirement.
- Ari Ne’eman (Harvard University, Health Policy and Political Analysis), uses administrative data to study the impact of the Department of Justice’s Olmstead litigation on employment and earnings outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
- Martina Uccioli (MIT, Economics) studies how employment protection legislation affects workers' and firms' behavior.
2020-21 Training Fellows in Disability Policy Research
Post-Doctoral Fellows
- Adrienne Sabety, PhD, Harvard University, 2020 work focuses on opioids, including how they are used by older adults and how the exit of opioid prescribers affects patients. More generally, Sabety’s research interests focus on improving the quality, access, and affordability of medical care.
- Mingli Zhong, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2020 research focuses on the optimal design of retirement policy and social insurance.
Pre-Doctoral Fellows
- Jonathan Leganza, University of California, San Diego, Economics uses administrative data from Denmark to study how increasing social security eligibility ages impacts savings.
- Ellen Stuart, University of Michigan, Economics studies how the timing of withdrawal decisions from traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) is influenced by two tax penalties faced by account holders.
- Martina Uccioli, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Economics studies job instability and the effects on workers’ life choices, from fertility to disability insurance receipt and retirement behavior.
The research reported herein was performed pursuant to grant #RDR18000003 from the US Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium. The opinions and conclusions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not represent the opinions or policy of NBER, SSA or any agency of the Federal Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the contents of this report. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof.