Barbara Wolfe, PhD

Professor of Population Health Sciences, Economics, and La Follette School of Public Affairs

Email: wolfe@Lafollette.wisc.edu

Biography:

Barbara Wolfe is a Professor in the departments of Population Health Sciences, Economics, and La Follette School of Public Affairs where she recently served as Director. She is also an affiliate and past director of the Institute for Research on Poverty. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 and has been a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1977. Professor Wolfe is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH and a member of National Advisory Committee, Robert Wood Johnson, Health Scholars Program. She is an Adjunct professor at the Research School of the Social Sciences, Economics Department, Australian National University, where she is involved with a cohort study on the role of income transfers in influencing the success of young adults. She has been a fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study and the Russell Sage Foundation. She has also been a visiting professor at the University of Bristol, the University of Munich and the University of Amsterdam. Her current research interests include the role of income and income inequality on health; exploring the role of income on the health of American Indians (a study of the role of gambling dollars on health); adequacy of resources at retirement and post-retirement; and several projects that focus on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Professor Wolfe co-directs a training program in health and mental health economics. (Download CV)

Affiliations/Associations:

• Adjunct Professor, Research School of Social Sciences, Department of Economics, Australian National University
• Member, National Advisory Committee, Robert Wood Johnson, Health Scholars Program
• American Economic Association, Association of Public Policy and Management, American Society of Health Economists, International Association of Public Finance

Recent Honors/Awards:

• Guggenheim Fellowship 2008-09
• Guest of the Rector, Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study, Spring 2007, Elected member, National Academy of Social Insurance
• Elected Member, Institute of Medicine

Select Publications:

“Social Security, Age-of-Retirement, and Economic Wellbeing: Intertemporal and Demographic Patterns among Retired-Worker Beneficiaries” (with R. Haveman, K. Holden & K. Wilson). Demography. May 40(2): 369-394.

"Mandating Insurance Offers for Low-Wage Workers: An Evaluation of Labor Market Effects." (with A. Wolaver & T.McBride) Jr of Health Politics, Policy and Law 28(5): 883-926. October.

The Role of Expectations in Adolescent Schooling Choices: Do Youths Respond to Economic Incentives?@2005. (With Kathryn Wilson and Robert Haveman) Economic Inquiry. Vol. 43, 3; 467-492

The Devil May be in the Details: How the Characteristics of SCHIP Programs Affect Take-Up@ 2005.(with Scott Scrivner.) Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 24(3); 499-522.

Do Newly Retired Workers in the U.S. Have Sufficient Resources to Maintain Well-Being?@ 2006. (With Robert Haveman, Karen Holden and Shane Sherlund.) Economic Inquiry. Vol. 44:Number 2:249-264.

SCHIP Expansion and Parental Coverage: An Evaluation of Wisconsin's BadgerCare.@ 2006 (With Robert Haveman, Thomas Kaplan and Yoon Young Cho.) Journal of Health Economics. Vol. 25:1170-1192.

Assessing the Maintenance of Savings Sufficiency Over the First Decade of Retirement, (with Robert Haveman, Karen Holden, and Andrei Romanov), International Tax and Public Finance, 14: 481–502, 2007.

Do Youth Nonmarital Childbearing Choices Reflect Income And Relationship Expectations? (with Robert Haveman, Karen Pence, and Jonathan Schwabish), Journal of Population Economics, 20(1): 73–100, February 2007.

Health Economics in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, Eds. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online. Palgrave Macmillan. 07 August 2008

Child Mental Health and Human Capital Accumulation: The Case of
ADHD Revisited,” (with Jason Fletcher), Journal of Health Economics, 27(3) pp. 794-800, 2008

Children’s Health and Health Care,” (with Emilie McHugh Rivers), Chapter 6 in Kids Having Kids, 2nd edition, Saul Hoffman and Rebecca Maynard eds., Urban Institute Press, 2008

Early Childhood Interventions and Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses,” (with Nathan Tefft), Chapter 2 in Investing in the Disadvantaged: What We Know, and What We
Need to Know, about the Benefits of Social Policies, David Weimer and A. Vining eds., Georgetown University Press, forthcoming.

Education and labor market consequences of teenage childbearing: Evidence using the timing of pregnancy outcomes and community fixed effects.’ (with
Jason Fletcher), Journal of Human Resources. 44(2) Spring, 2009

"The Role of Economic Incentives in Teenage Nonmarital Childbearing Choices." (with K. Wilson & R. Haveman) Jr. of Public Economics, 81, 473-511. 2001.

"Health Policies for the Nonelderly Poor." (with J. Mullahy) in Understanding Poverty. Edited by S. Danziger & R. Haveman. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. 278-313. 2002.

“Government Mandates and Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance: Who Is Still Not Covered?” (with D. Vanness.) Int’l Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics, Volume 2, Issue 2 99-135 June, 2002.

“Incentives and Challenges of TANF Design: A Case Study” JPPAM 21(4): 577-586. Fall 2002

Courses Taught:

Health Economics, Economics 848, Economics 845

Contact Details:

Address: Room 589 Warf and 1225 Observatory Dr.

Phone: Phone: (608) 263-2029

Fax: (608) 265-3119

Email: wolfe@Lafollette.wisc.edu