New research shows that expansions in children’s Medicaid eligibility increases the likelihood a mother is married, decreases her labor market participation, and reduces her smoking and alcohol consumption.

Wage insurance provides income support to displaced workers who find reemployment at a lower wage. This group of scholars study the effects of the wage insurance provisions of the US Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program using administrative data from the state of Virginia. What they find suggests that wage insurance eligibility increases short-run employment probabilities and that wage insurance and TAA training may yield similar long-run effects on employment and earnings.

This article examines how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would change financial resources for and transfers to the previously uninsured if they were to purchase coverage in the ACA insurance exchanges (marketplaces) in 2014. The results suggest that the law provides gains to some, relative to their spending in the pre-ACA period, particularly those in poor health and with very low incomes, but it also potentially imposes financial losses on many, again compared to their experience when uninsured.

Matthew J. Notowidigdo studies a broad set of topics in labor economics and health economics. In labor economics, his research has focused on understanding the causes and consequences of long-term unemployment and the economic effects of unemployment insurance over the business cycle. Notowidigdo’s research in health economics focuses on the effects of public health insurance on labor supply and the effects of income on health spending. He is currently working with several state governments on large-scale randomized experiments of existing social insurance programs.

Ellen Meara is a health economist known for her work modeling the effects of public policies and regulations on health care utilization, overall health, and economic outcomes. Her research often focuses on the impact of public policies and regulations on publicly insured populations in Medicare and Medicaid. Meara looks closely at the economic impact of changes to insurance coverage, payment strategies, and the implementation of care delivery innovations. Much of this work focuses on disabled populations, including people with mental illness and substance disorders. She has extensive experience tracking trends in medical spending over time and for different populations.

Jonathan Skinner is a Research Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College, and a Professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at Geisel School of Medicine, also at Dartmouth. His research interests include measuring productivity and efficiency in health care, and the savings behavior of retirees.  He is also the Aging Program Director at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Batten professor Molly Lipscomb has a creative solution to a public sanitation crisis—and a new vision for the center that’s helping to address it.

**This talk has been postponed and hopefully will be rescheduled at a future date.**
Oriana Bandeira is a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research analyses organisations and labor markets in different settings. The links below group selected recent papers by theme, all other papers can be found on her cv and at Ideas.