I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, Irvine, Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health. My research spans health economics, labor economics, and health policy. I apply causal inference methods to large administrative data to evaluate how Medicaid, health insurance, and labor policies affect access to care, health outcomes, and health care costs.
I received my PhD in Economics from Claremont Graduate University in 2024.
When Parents Can Spare Time: Paid Sick Leave and Adolescent Mental Health
Adolescent mental health care often depends on parental time. Using a staggered difference-in-differences design and two national surveys, we find that state paid sick leave mandates increased adolescents' receipt of mental health care by 3.0 percentage points (16.4 percent), while self-reported depressive symptoms declined. Parents' care-coordination time rose with no reduction in work hours or employment, pointing to parents' time, rather than income, as the mechanism.
California's Medi-Cal Expansion to Undocumented Adults Was Associated with Greater Primary Care Participation
California extended full-scope Medi-Cal to income-eligible undocumented adults ages 50 and older in 2022 and ages 26 to 49 in 2024. We study whether these expansions drew more primary care physicians into Medi-Cal.