About Robert Kaestner

Robert Kaestner is a Research Professor in the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy. Dr. Kaestner is also a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an Affiliated Scholar of the Urban Institute and a Senior Fellow of the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy of USC. Prior to joining Harris, Dr. 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) 

Dr. Kaestner received his Ph.D. in Economics from the City University of New York. He received his BA and MA from Binghamton University (SUNY).   

Dr. Kaestner’s areas of research interest are the economic and social determinants of health, health demography, and health, labor and social policy evaluation. He has published over 125 articles in academic journals. Recent studies have been awarded Article of the Year by AcademyHealth in 2011 and the 2012 Frank R. Breul Memorial Prize for the best publication in Social Services Review. Dr. Kaestner has also been the Principal Investigator on several NIH grants focused on Medicare and Medicaid policy. 

Dr. Kaestner is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Health Economics and the American Journal of Health Economics, and on the Editorial Board of Demography and Journal of Policy Analysis & Management.