15 Graduate Students Receive Dissertation Fellowships for 2024–25

Each year, the NBER provides dissertation fellowships for a number of doctoral students in economics and finance, in each case after a widely-disseminated call for applications.

Fellowships for dissertation writers in aging and health economics, supported by the National Institute on Aging and the NBER, have been awarded to Michael B. Briskin, of Boston University; Marema Gaye and Graeme P. Peterson of Harvard University; and Theodore L. Caputi, Rebekah A. Dix, Dean Li, Kelsey Moran, and James C. Okun of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Briskin is studying the widespread adoption of private health insurance in the 1940s and 1950s and its effects on physician labor markets and health outcomes in the US. Caputi’s research focuses on behavioral aspects of public health, such as drug use, violence, and crime, and their effects on economic outcomes. Dix is investigating externalities in medical innovation and how interoperability and technological frictions affect patients and healthcare providers. Gaye is studying mental health care and the non-participation of some clinicians in public health insurance. Li is examining the effects of outsourcing, technological change, and consolidation on healthcare labor markets and healthcare delivery. Moran is investigating the determinants of hospital provision of charity care as well as the effects of health information exchange on patients and organizations. Okun is studying the effects of government buyer power on health care markets as well as the quality of publicly-financed nursing home care in the United States and how it interacts with selective admissions practices. Peterson’s dissertation addresses health insurance markets, environmental health, and the causes and consequences of racial disparities in the US healthcare system.

Fellowships for graduate students studying behavioral macroeconomics, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, have been awarded to Lingxuan Sean Wu of Harvard University, Michael D. Cai of Northwestern University, and Matteo Saccarola of University of California, Berkeley.

Cai is studying the estimation of macroeconomic models that accommodate wide classes of non-rational expectations. Saccarola is analyzing the formation of beliefs about inflation, exchange rates, and prices. Wu is studying the implications of misunderstanding of economic relations for the economic fluctuations and stabilization policy.

Fellowships to support research on consumer financial management, funded by the Institute of Consumer Money Management, have been awarded to Justin Katz of Harvard University and Grace Ortuzar of the University of Notre Dame.

Katz is studying frictions in household debt repayment decisions, with a particular focus on the mortgage and housing sector. Ortuzar is examining the effects of a range of policies that are designed to benefit low-income tenants and reduce homelessness. 

Fellowships for the study of retirement and disability policy research, sponsored by the Social Security Administration, have been awarded to Melissa D. Gentry of Texas A&M University and Sydney Gordon of the University of California, Irvine.

Gentry is studying the role of access to transportation in affecting employment of individuals with disabilities. Gordon is investigating Social Security Administration field office staffing affects benefit enrollment patterns. 

The NBER posts calls for fellowship applications each fall. Application closing dates are usually in early December. Those interested in receiving fellowship announcements can sign up to receive notices.