Featured Researcher: Kathleen McGarry

Kathleen McGarry is a research associate in the NBER’s programs on the Economics of Aging, the Economics of Health, and Public Economics, and a professor of economics and current department chair at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has also taught at Dartmouth College and Stony Brook University. McGarry co-directs the NBER’s Coordinating Center on the Economics of Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias. 

Her research addresses the economics of aging, with extensive work on end-of-life medical expenses and the transfer of resources within families. She has analyzed the financial strain associated with dementia, caregiving, and long-term care in the United States. She is the coeditor of a forthcoming book, Long-Term Care Around the World, which draws together the findings from a recent NBER project. It highlights the heterogeneity across 10 developed countries in the delivery and financing of long-term care, including nursing homes, formal home care, and informal care. 

McGarry’s research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Social Security Administration. She has serverd as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers, and participated in the Social Security Advisory Board's Technical Panel on Labor Force Participation and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Loneliness and Isolation among the Elderly. 

Professor McGarry earned her BS in mathematics and her PhD in economics from Stony Brook University.