Anna Aizer

Anna Aizer is the Maurice R. Greenberg Professor of Economics at Brown University. She specializes in labor and health economics, focusing on child health, well-being, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Co-director of the NBER's Program on Children, her research examines mechanisms such as health insurance access, domestic violence, environmental toxins, stress, and juvenile justice interactions that perpetuate poverty across generations.

Educated at UCLA (2003), she joined Brown in 2004 after a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton's Center for Research on Child Wellbeing. Her work bridges economic policy and social science, emphasizing long-term impacts of interventions like cash transfers and historical programs (e.g., New Deal youth employment).

Key research themes include the effects of social safety nets, foster care, and lead exposure on child outcomes. Her studies often leverage quasi-experimental designs to assess policy effectiveness, such as evaluating the Child Tax Credit or WWII-era labor market policies. She has contributed to debates on balancing adult disincentives with child benefits in welfare programs.

Her recent articles (2023–2025) explore modern policy impacts (e.g., cash transfers, tax credits) alongside historical analyses. Aizer's work underscores the need for holistic approaches addressing health, environment, and justice systems to break cycles of disadvantage.

Notably, she has highlighted racial disparities in lead exposure and test scores, linking environmental justice to socioeconomic outcomes. Her co-authored studies on juvenile incarceration and human capital development reveal long-term crime reduction benefits of alternative sentencing.