Featured Researcher: Melissa McInerney

Melissa McInerney is a research associate in the NBER’s program on the Economics of Aging and a professor of economics at Tufts University.

McInerney’s research analyzes a variety of social insurance programs, including workers’ compensation, Medicaid, and Medicare. Much of her recent work has focused on the effects of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansions. For example, she has considered how Medicaid expansions directly affected health care and health outcomes for adults nearing age 65. She has also examined how these expansions indirectly affected Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older by, for instance, increasing the likelihood of dual enrollment in Medicaid and Medicare. In addition, McInerney has studied the impacts of recessions on health, health behaviors, and health care utilization among senior citizens.

Her work has been supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute on Aging, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Social Security Administration, the US Department of Labor, and the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. She chairs the National Longitudinal Surveys Technical Review Committee and is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

McInerney earned a BA from Carleton College, an MPP from Georgetown University, and a PhD in economics from the University of Maryland at College Park. Prior to joining the faculty at Tufts in 2014, she taught at William and Mary.

McInerney lives in Arlington, MA with her husband and two daughters, ages 9 and 12. She enjoys hiking, running, and traveling.