Economics of the Safety Net
Faculty Supervisors:
Chima Ndumele and Jacob Wallace
Project and Position Description:
Professors Wallace and Ndumele co-direct the SCALE Lab at the Yale School of Public Health and are recruiting two Fellows to support a portfolio of research aimed at improving the design and delivery of safety-net programs.
The State Collaborations to Advance Learning (SCALE) Lab partners with state governments to conduct rigorous, policy-relevant research using administrative data. The team works across Medicaid, SNAP, and other safety-net programs, using both experimental and quasi-experimental methods to study how program design and administration affect access, outcomes, and program performance.
A key component of this work is a partnership with the Tobin Center for Economic Policy to embed a research team within the Connecticut Department of Social Services. This collaboration provides unprecedented access to novel administrative data, close engagement with senior policymakers, and opportunities to develop and evaluate policy interventions in real-world settings.
SCALE’s research spans several interconnected areas:
Experimental evaluation and evidence-building. One area of SCALE’s work is building evidence on and expanding the use of randomization in Medicaid and other public programs. The team partners with state governments to design, implement, and analyze randomized controlled trials (RCTs). These include interventions to increase childhood immunizations and well-child visits, increase participation in other safety-net programs such as SNAP, and reduce hospital readmissions through care management.
Program administration and performance. SCALE studies how states can improve the administration and effectiveness of safety-net programs. One current project focuses on SNAP Payment Error Rates, using supervised machine learning and administrative data to better understand the drivers of payment errors and identify opportunities to improve program administration and the allocation of state resources.
Economics of Medicaid managed care. The team also conducts quasi-experimental and other empirical research using state and national administrative data on a growing portfolio of safety-net topics, including administrative burdens in accessing coverage (e.g., work requirements) and services (e.g., prior authorization); the impact of privatization within Medicaid and the role of competitive procurement and contract design; and the design of long-term services and supports, pharmacy policy, and provider networks.
Across these areas, Fellows work closely with faculty, state partners, and other researchers, with opportunities to contribute to study design, data analysis, implementation, and the translation of findings for policymakers.
Research from the team has been covered in the New York Times, NPR, and PBS and cited by President Obama. It has been presented to federal and state policymakers, including governors, commissioners, Medicaid directors, and the Congressional Budget Office and shared widely at academic conferences (e.g., National Bureau of Economic Research).
Candidates should have an interest in pursuing economics research to advance knowledge and inform real-world policy problems. Responsibilities include data cleaning, statistical analysis, preparation of presentations and policy memos, and manuscript drafting. Prior pre-doctoral fellows have co-authored papers with the research team—including papers in top journals like the American Economic Review—and regularly interact with Yale faculty and external collaborators. We have excellent placements, including top PhD programs at Yale, Harvard, Northwestern, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins.
For more information about Professor Jacob Wallace, visit www.jacobwswallace.com.
Requisite Skills and Qualifications:
Applicants should be completing or have completed a Bachelor's or Master’s degree and have excellent programming skills. Preference will be given to detail-oriented applicants with previous research and programming experience, particularly in working with large datasets using statistical packages including R and Python. We prefer candidates who can work for two years. We also strongly encourage individuals with previous experience in economic consulting to apply.