Associate professor of health care policy Nicole Maestas, PhD, has been named the Director of the National Bureau of Economic Research Disability Research Center.

Maestas, who is as a research associate in both the NBER Aging and Labor Studies programs, has served as the Associate Director of the NBER disability center since July 2016. Her expertise encompasses a wide range of issues related to disability insurance, where she has been particularly focused on how disability insurance benefits affect labor supply and other economic behaviors.  She has also recently served on the Social Security Advisory Board's Disability Policy Panel and the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Health Care Utilization and Adults with Disabilities.

The National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals. Maestas has been an active member since 2015.