Maria Fitzpatrick

Professor, Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Link

Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies

CAPS Biography:

I am a Professor in the Department of Economics at the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University, and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy. In addition to being an affiliate of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies (CAPS), I am also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and co-Director of the National Data Archive of Child Abuse and Neglect, as well as a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and affiliate of the Cornell Population Center and the Center for the Study of Inequality at Cornell. I am also a co-editor of the Economics of Education Review, the top field journal in the economics of education.  

Drawing on my training in economics, I have deep expertise in and experience using a range of causal inference approaches, including the use of natural experiments and difference-in-differences methods to examine questions related to individual well-being. As a policy scholar, I have longstanding partnerships aimed at informing policy, including health policy. I have worked with U.S. state and local agencies across the country, which speaks to my interest and ability to use research for broader impacts. In these ways, my research fits with CAPS signature themes of health and well-being and family and intergenerational supports, as well as CAPS cross-cutting theme of policy.