The MSU Department of Economics is delighted to welcome Professor Hannah Bae as an 1855 Assistant Professor of Economics. She received her PhD in Economics from UC San Diego in 2024 and was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine.
“I’m grateful for how smoothly my first semester has gone, thanks to the warm welcome from everyone in the department,” Professor Bae said. “As a member of the Economics faculty, I look forward to contributing to the department’s research community and engaging more with students through teaching and mentoring opportunities.”
She is an applied microeconomist whose research lies at the intersection of health economics and public economics.
“I am interested in understanding how government regulations affect individuals, families, and markets, and in exploring approaches to address health disparities,” she said.
She became interested in this research because she hopes to provide evidence to support constructive policy design and contribute to more thoughtful policy dialogue going forward.
“For example, organs from deceased donors are allocated through national policies intended to promote equitable access to transplants,” she explained. “Yet more than 20 percent of recovered kidneys go unused. Because Medicare plays a central role in financing organ donation and treatments for advanced kidney disease, this motivated my interest in how government policies can improve the use of donated organs, enhance transplant outcomes, shape access to transplants, and have implications for Medicare spending.”
In her recent publication, “Dependent insurance coverage and parental job lock: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act” she and her co-authors show that government policies aimed at increasing dependent coverage can generate intra-family spillover effects, such as influencing parents’ labor supply decisions. These findings point to additional channels through which the policy's effects may operate.
“One aspect I value in my work is the opportunity to collaborate with researchers across different disciplines—including Medicine, Public Health, and Engineering—who share the goal of understanding health policies that improve care delivery and patient outcomes. This effort has led to exciting outcomes, including the recent JAMA Surgery article,” she said.
Valuing collaboration was a large reason she chose MSU.
“The department provides a vibrant and intellectually rigorous research environment, along with a collaborative culture and thoughtful support for early-career scholars. The collegial atmosphere and shared commitment to high-quality research were important factors in my decision to join MSU.”
In addition to her research, Professor Bae is teaching the Economics Health Care course this semester and next.
Please join us in welcoming Professor Bae to the department!
By Katie Frey
