Dora L. Costa (born 1964) is an American economics professor at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
where she is the
Kenneth L. Sokoloff Professor of Economic History. She is also the department chair of the economics department. In addition to her teaching position, Costa is a research associate at the
National Bureau of Economic Research
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...
(NBER).
She is married to fellow economist Matthew Edwin Kahn who is a professor at the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
's economics department and a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
's Economics Department and Business School.
Early life and education
Costa was born in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
t
Dr. Natalia Costaan
Dr. Gustavo Costain 1964. Costa earned her
Bachelors of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree in economics and mathematics from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in 1986. She went on to earn an M.A. in economics in 1988 before earning her Ph.D. in Economics in 1993 both from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
.
Career
After receiving her Ph.D., Costa accepted an assistant professor position at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
in 1993. She later became a Ford Career Development Associate Professor in 1997 before becoming an associate professor with tenure in 2000 and finally a full professor in 2003 at MIT, leaving in 2008. Since 2007, Costa is a professor of economics at UCLA, where she teaches economic history and health economics. In 2017, she became both the Kenneth T. Sokoloff Professor of Economic History and a department chair (from 2017 to 2021).
Her affiliation with NBER began in 1993 as a faculty research fellow before becoming a research associate in 2000. She is currently a researcher on their programs on the Development of the American Economy and on Aging and the director of the NBER working group Cohort Studies since 2000 as well.
Costa has also worked for the California Center for Population Research, holding the position of associate director from 2007 to 2017. From 2014 to 2016, Costa was on the executive committee of the
American Economic Association
The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals acknowledged in business and academia. There are some 23,000 members.
History and Constitution
The AEA was esta ...
. She was also on the Sub-Committee on Non-Discrimination in the Economics Profession from 2015 to 2017 and the nominating committee in 2016. Her past experiences include positions on editorial boards as well, including the ''American Economic Review'', ''the Journal of Economic Literature'', and a current position at ''Cliometrica, Journal of Economic Perspectives''.
Research
Costa's research focuses on interpretations of
labor economics, demography, and health through American economic history. Her research has covered several topics including but not limited to retirement, elderly living, older age mortality and morbidity, trends in population health and leisure, CPI bias, and
social capital
Social capital is "the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively". It involves the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships ...
.
A majority of her research compares and examines cross-sectional relations from the past and present have been changing. This is done with the goal of better informing our understanding of the future in these topics. She has written numerous works such as:
* Heroes and Cowards: The Social Face of War
* The Evolution of Retirement: An American Economic History 1880-1990
* Understanding Long-Run Economic Growth
* Health and Labor Force Participation Over the Life Cycle: Evidence from the Past
* Leaders: Privilege, Sacrifice, Opportunity and Personnel Economics in the American Civil War
* Surviving Andersonville: The Benefits of Social Networks in POW Camps
* Energy Conservation 'Nudges' and Environmental Ideology: Evidence from a Randomized Residential Electricity Field Experiment
* From Mill Town to Board Room: The Rise of Women's Paid Labor
* Power Couples: Changes in the Locational Choice of the College Educated, 1940-1990
Her current research focuses on two topics. First, she is investigating long-term trends in health inequality by social class at all stages of the life cycle. She also analyzes the effect of childhood health on morbidity and economic outcomes at older ages. The second topic is the intergenerational and transgenerational transmission of health and socioeconomic status.
Recognition
Costa has been awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and was a fellow at both the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral and Social Sciences and NBER. She was awarded the Allen Nevins Prize for outstanding dissertation in U.S. economic history in 1994 by the Economic History Association. Her paper, "The Evolution of Retirement: An American Economic History 1880-1990" received the TIAA-CREF's 1998 Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security. In 2014, her article in the journal ''Law, Economics and Organization'' won the Oliver E. Williamson Prize for Best Article.
References
Bibliography
* ''Heroes and Cowards: The Social Face of War'' (joint with Matthew Kahn). 2008. Princeton University Press.
* ''The Evolution of Retirement: An American Economic History 1880-1990''. 1998. University of Chicago Press.
* ''Understanding Long-Run Economic Growth.'' 2011. (joint co-editor with Naomi Lamoreaux) University of Chicago Press for NBER.
* ''Health and Labor Force Participation Over the Life Cycle: Evidence from the Past''. 2003. University of Chicago Press for NBER.
* “Leaders: Privilege, Sacrifice, Opportunity and Personnel Economics in the American Civil War.” (First published on-line, June 14, 2013.) Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization. 30(3): 437-62.
* "Surviving Andersonville: The Benefits of Social Networks in POW Camps." (joint with Matthew Kahn) 2007. American Economic Review. 97(4): 1467-1487.
* “Energy Conservation ‘Nudges’ and Environmental Ideology: Evidence from a Randomized Residential Electricity Field Experiment.” (joint with Matthew Kahn). 2013. Journal of the European Economic Association. 11(3): 680-702.
* "From Mill Town to Board Room: The Rise of Women's Paid Labor." Journal of Economic Perspectives. Fall 2000. 14(4): 101-122.
* "Power Couples: Changes in the Locational Choice of the College Educated, 1940-1990." (joint with Matthew E. Kahn), Quarterly Journal of Economics. November 2000. 115(4): 1287-1315.
External links
CVHome Page of Dora Costa - UCLA Economics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Dora L.
1964 births
Living people
21st-century American economists
American women economists
UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
University of Chicago alumni
21st-century American women