Kaitlyn Sims

Dr. Kaitlyn M. Sims is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. She directs the SHAPE Lab and focuses on applied economics at the intersection of public health, violence, and environmental hazards. Her research examines household uncertainties such as domestic violence, housing insecurity, and poverty, with a regional emphasis on Latin America, particularly the economic impacts of the Chilean military dictatorship. She has conducted fieldwork in Chile and Brazil, exploring deforestation policies and their health consequences.

Her scholarly contributions span policy evaluation, carceral systems, and socio-economic disparities. Notable works include analyses of cash bail reforms, the EITC program’s effects on domestic violence, and agricultural intensification’s role in childhood cancer in Brazil. Sims also critiques methodological issues like the diff-in-diff replication crisis in social policy.

Her interdisciplinary approach combines qualitative and quantitative methods, including spatial analysis and program evaluation. She advocates for evidence-based policymaking through initiatives like her Substack, Empirical Truths, which simplifies complex research for public understanding.