Research

Robert Kaestner is a Research Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy of the University of Chicago. He is also a Nonresident Senior Scholar of the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service, Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an Affiliated Scholar of the Urban Institute. Prior to joining Harris, Kaestner was on the faculty of the University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of California, Riverside, the CUNY Graduate Center and Baruch College (CUNY). He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the City University of New York. He received his BA and MA from Binghamton University (SUNY). His research interests include health economics, demography, and health, labor, and social policy evaluation. He has published over 160 articles in academic journals. Recent studies have been awarded Article of the Year by AcademyHealth in 2011, the 2012 Frank R. Breul Memorial Prize for the best publication in Social Services Review, and Winner of The Georgescu-Roegen Prize 2024 for the best academic article published in the Southern Economic Journal. Dr. Kaestner has also been the Principal Investigator on several NIH grants focused on Medicare and Medicaid policy.