6th Conference of the Swiss Society of Health Economics

Nicole Maestras, Ph.D.

Nicole Maestas, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), where she directs the NBER’s Retirement and Disability Research Center. She studies the economics of disability insurance, labor markets, health care systems, and population aging. Her research studies how the health and disability insurance systems affect individual economic behaviors, such as labor supply and the use of medical care. Dr. Maestas’ research has shown how the federal disability insurance system discourages employment by people with disabilities. In other work she is examining how population aging affects economic growth and how working conditions affect individuals’ ability and desire to sustain employment at older ages. In current work, Dr. Maestas is investigating the causes of the opioid epidemic and its impact on employment and participation in the federal disability programs, as well as the effects of state Medicaid policies on the health care and well-being of people receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Dr. Maestas has published widely in the leading journals of economics, policy and medicine. She received her M.P.P. in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in Economics also from UC Berkeley.