Providing grants for outstanding social policy research since 1997
2026 Grant Recipients
For Applications received in 2025
David Adeyemo
​Relocating for Opportunity: LIHTC and Neighborhood Revitalization
​David examines whether the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)—the largest affordable housing program in the US—can serve as a mechanism for housing low-income families in high-opportunity neighborhoods. Combining proprietary migration data with near-far Difference-in-Differences causal design, the study analyzes whether LIHTC improves neighborhood opportunity through residential mobility.
Alexander Adia
Examining the Impact of State-Implemented Surprise Billing Protections on Consumer Finances
​As healthcare prices rise faster than wages, patients who cannot afford care may be burdened by medical debt. Surprise billing is often cited as a key contributor to medical debt. Alexander's research evaluates impacts of early state-implemented surprise billing laws on consumer finances, including medical debt.
Francisca Alba
Leaving Money on the Table: The Role of Benefit Misperceptions in Tax‑Filing Decisions Among Low‑Income Workers
​Why do some low-income workers fail to file their taxes, even though nonfiling means leaving substantial money on the table? Using administrative tax data from Michigan and a survey of workers' beliefs, Francisca provides evidence that misperceptions of tax refunds are a driver of this choice.
Rachael Arietti
Predictors of Over-Policing and Under-Policing in Kansas City, MO: An Examination of Neighborhood Trajectories
​This study establishes empirical measures of over-policing and under-policing using novel indicators of police activity. It examines how these policing patterns vary across Kansas City neighborhoods over an 11-year period, and whether neighborhood characteristics, such as economic disadvantage and demographic composition, predict these patterns of police behavior over time.
Sarah Baum
Selection and Surveillance: Linking Shocks to Safety Net Health Care Access and STI Case Detection
​This project quantifies how negative shocks to health care access affect sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Leveraging a novel national panel of publicly funded safety net clinics and quasi-experimental variation in clinic funding, I answer whether—and through what mechanisms—reduced access to care affects STI testing, transmission, and surveillance.
Alejandra Campero Perero
Cash Transfers in Climate Disaster Response: Evidence from Malawi
​This study evaluates the household welfare impact of a government cash transfer delivered in response to Malawi's 2023/24 drought. Using a difference-in-differences approach with panel data, findings provide evidence on the effectiveness of integrating climate risk into the design of social protection programs to protect vulnerable groups.
Sophie Collyer
Family Tax Policy in the U.S.: Distributional Impacts and Long‑Term Consequences for Children
Sophie's dissertation examines often overlooked elements of tax policy and considers their impacts on the well-being of families and children. She quantifies tax benefits delivered to children and families over time based on family income level and structure, consider them against the benefits of other social programs, and examine if the effects of income (including income from tax benefits) on children’s long-term educational and employment outcomes vary across the family income distribution in the U.S.
Madison Coots
A Text‑Augmented Test of Discrimination in Policing
​Despite improvements in data quality on police activities, empirical audits remain limited because key contextual information about search decisions is often embedded in unstructured narratives. This project develops and applies an LLM-based approach for incorporating these narratives into analyses, enabling improved oversight and audits of police practices at scale.
Caitlin Dutta
SNAP Enrollment, Labor Outcomes, and Work Requirements
​The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides food assistance to millions of Americans. In this project I study how work requirements in SNAP affect the enrollment and labor outcomes of able-bodied adults without dependents. Work requirements were recently expanded within SNAP and to other programs making this topic politically relevant.
Ayotunde Giwa
From Deficit Analysis to Adaptive Capacity: An Organizational‑Theory Approach to Health System Resilience in Nigeria
​This dissertation examines how Nigeria's health system built adaptive capacity through the Ebola (2014), Lassa fever (2018), and COVID-19 (2020-2021) crises. It develops the Crisis-Induced Adaptive Capacity (CIAC) framework to explain how resource-constrained health systems convert crisis experience into durable organizational capability through reconfiguration, reliability-seeking, and institutionalized learning.
Clarissa Iliff
Does It Take a Village? How Neighborhood Collective Efficacy Moderates the Impact of Gun Violence Exposure on Substance Use in Young Adulthood
​Drawing on the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this research examines how childhood exposure to deadly gun violence shapes substance use into adulthood, asking not just whether exposure matters, but how proximity, frequency, and recency interact with neighborhood collective efficacy to determine the depth of its toll.
Max Lubell
Eyes on the Cul‑de‑sac: Suburban Neighborhood Change and Digitally‑Mediated Citizen Surveillance
Max's dissertation investigates how neighborhood-based digital platforms and home surveillance technology allow ordinary citizens to engage in efforts to reduce crime and build community cohesion. This mixed-methods project combines spatial analysis and qualitative fieldwork to examine whether and how these technologies can reshape community life and inform public safety policy.
Maria Montoya-Aguirre
​Drug Lords in STEM: How Synthetic Drug Production Reshapes Human Capital Investment in Mexico
​A core premise of crime policy is that education protects youth from criminal involvement. Maria's dissertation challenges this view by showing that Mexico's synthetic drug boom, which demands chemistry skills, reduced school dropout and shifted students toward chemistry-intensive STEM fields—suggesting that when crime demands skilled labor, education may facilitate participation
Jorge Morales-Alfaro
Trustees Award
The Effect of Pharmacy‑Adjacent Doctor Offices (PADOs) Expansion on Public Healthcare Utilization and Health Outcomes in Mexico
​This project aims to estimate the causal effect of the expansion of Pharmacy-Adjacent Doctors’ Offices on healthcare utilization and health outcomes for patients with Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs) and acute respiratory conditions in public hospitals by building a novel dataset with AI and street-level images.
Soobin Park
Identifying Dementia Care Deserts: A National Study of Community Resource Gaps for People Living with Dementia
This project develops a Dementia Resource Environment (DRE) index to identify where community-level dementia supports are most lacking. By revealing “dementia care deserts,” the study provides an evidence base for better targeting of community supports that enable older adults with dementia to remain safe and supported at home.
Robert Skinner
Inspector‑Level Variation in Nursing Home Regulation and Its Impact on Care Quality
​This project analyzes how nursing home inspector behavior and networks shape regulatory stringency and resident health outcomes. Using nationwide inspection data (2015–2024), Robert measures inspector-level variation and the effects of citations on resident health outcomes. This work may inform policies to improve quality data accuracy and resident safety nationwide.
Gabrielle Sorresso
Irving Louis Horowitz Award
Abortion Bans and Maternal Health Care: Evidence from Dobbs
This project provides large-scale evidence of state abortion bans' effect on maternal health following Dobbs v. Jackson. Using claims data, Gabrielle estimates causal effects on healthcare utilization and care among pregnant women. Two mechanisms are explored: changes in risk profile of pregnant women and changes in OBGYN supply of care.
Jiebiao Wang
Medicaid, Managed Long‑Term Services and Supports, and the Transition to Adulthood for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs)
​This dissertation examines how Medicaid MLTSS policy changes and the age-21 transition affect healthcare utilization among individuals with IDDs. Using quasi-experimental methods and administrative data, it focuses on emergency department utilization, access to care, and underlying mechanisms that shape utilization patterns nationwide.
Yerin Yoon
Does Career and Technical Education Serve as a Safety Net at the Academic Threshold?
​Lower-achieving students are often underserved by traditional college-preparatory pathways, leaving them at risk of school and labor market disengagement. Using an academic threshold in Massachusetts, this project examines whether Career and Technical Education (CTE) access serves as their effective alternative pathway in comprehensive high schools and improves postsecondary outcomes.
​Olanrewaju Yusuff
Mental Healthcare Facilities and Mortality: Evidence from Local Access and Insurance Expansion
This study provides the first causal evidence that access to mental health treatment facilities reduces mortality. Using county-level data from 1999-2016, Olanrewaju find each facility prevents 1.56 deaths per 100,000 annually. Facility closures cause ten times as much harm as openings provide benefit. Medicaid expansion amplifies facility effectiveness by 26%.