Nicole Maestas

Media Resources

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Senior Economist; Research Department Director, Economics, Sociology, and Statistics Department; Director, RAND Center for Disability Research; Acting Director, Bing Center for Health Economics; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Santa Monica Office

Education

Ph.D. in economics, University of California, Berkeley; M.P.P., Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley; B.A. in English and Spanish, Wellesley College

Overview

Biography

Nicole Maestas is a senior economist and director of the Economics, Sociology and Statistics Research Department at RAND. Her research addresses the economics of retirement, health, and disability--specifically, work after retirement ('unretirement'); how longer work lives could ameliorate the economic effects of population aging; the work disincentive effects of the Social Security Disability Insurance program; and the effect of the Medicare program on disparities in health care utilization, treatment intensity, and mortality. She is director of the RAND Center for Disability Research, the RAND Postdoctoral Training Program in the Study of Aging, and acting director of the Bing Center for Health Economics. She is also a professor of economics at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, where she teaches microeconomic theory. Maestas received her B.A. from Wellesley College; her M.P.P. from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley; and her Ph.D. in economics, also from UC Berkeley.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

The effects of Social Security Disability Insurance receipt on labor supply
Social Security Disability Insurance applications
Retirement, unretirement, and work at older ages
The effect of the Medicare program on disparities in health care utilization, treatment intensity, and mortality

Selected Publications

Nicole Maestas, Kathleen Mullen, and Alexander Strand, "Does Disability Insurance Receipt Discourage Work? Using Examiner Assignment to Estimate Causal Effects of SSDI Receipt," American Economic Review (forthcoming)

Dana Goldman and Nicole Maestas, "Medical Expenditure Risk and Household Portfolio Choice," Journal of Applied Econometrics (forthcoming)

Vincenzo Atella, Marianna Brunetti, and Nicole Maestas, "Household Portfolio Choices, Health Status and Health Care Systems: A Cross-Country Analysis Based on SHARE," Journal of Banking and Finance, 36(5):1320–1335, 2012

Nicole Maestas, "Back to Work: Expectations and Realizations of Work after Retirement," Journal of Human Resources, 45(3), 2010

Nicole Maestas and Julie Zissimopoulos, "How Longer Work Lives Ease the Crunch of Population Aging," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(1):139-160, 2010

David Card, Carlos Dobkin, and Nicole Maestas, "Does Medicare Save Lives?" Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124(2):597-636, 2009

David Card, Carlos Dobkin, and Nicole Maestas, "The Impact of Nearly Universal Insurance Coverage on Health Care Utilization and Health: Evidence from Medicare," American Economic Review, 98(5):2242-58, 2008

Nicole Maestas "Cohort Differences in Retirement Expectations and Realizations in Redefining Retirement: How Will Boomers Fare?" in Brigitte Madrian, Olivia Mitchell, and Beth Soldo, Redefining Retirement: How Will Boomers Fare? Oxford University Press, 2007

Honors & Awards

Finalist 2010, National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation Research Award
Best Paper Award 2011, Annual Paris Conference on Money, Economy and Management

Recent Media Appearances

Interviews: Associated Press; Bloomberg News; Bloomberg TV; CBS News Radio Affiliate; Dow Jones; Fiscal Times; McClatchy/Sacramento Bee; NBC News; New York Times; NPR Affiliate in Los Angeles; Reader's Digest; Richard Heffner's Open Mind; U.S. News & World Report; USA Today; Washington Post

Commentary: Orange County Register