Dora Costa

Dora Costa is the Kenneth L. Sokoloff Chair in Economic History and a Professor of Economics at UCLA. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), co-directing its Cohort Studies working group. Her research spans labor economics, demography, and health, with a focus on long-term historical analysis of American societal trends.

Costa earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago. Her work examines historical patterns of retirement, elderly care, mortality, and health, often contrasting past and present to predict future trends. She authored influential books like The Evolution of Retirement and Cowards and Heroes, analyzing Civil War veterans and generational health impacts.

Her research frequently integrates Civil War data and Union Army records to explore intergenerational effects of trauma, starvation, and social networks. Themes include how historical health shocks influence longevity and socioeconomic status across generations, as well as the role of media in shaping health awareness during epidemics.

Costa’s work has been published in nearly 60 articles since 2010, covering topics from veterans’ post-war outcomes to modern energy consumption trends. She collaborates with NBER’s Development of the American Economy and Aging programs, emphasizing data-driven historical analysis to address contemporary policy questions.

Her academic contributions bridge economics, demography, and history, with a focus on leveraging historical datasets to uncover persistent social and health patterns. Current research applies cliometric methods to study long-term societal changes in health, aging, and economic behavior.