Esra Kose

Esra Kose is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Business Management at the University of California Merced, specializing in applied microeconomics with a focus on long-term policy impacts. Her research bridges historical events and contemporary social interventions, particularly examining how public investments shape human capital development across generations.

Her core research interests include:

• Economics of Education: Rigorous evaluation of early childhood programs like Head Start on academic trajectories and human capital formation
• Public Economics: Analysis of government spending efficiency in health and education infrastructure
• Health Economics: Investigation of prenatal care access, birth outcomes, and intergenerational health transmission
• Labor Economics: Exploration of how childhood interventions affect lifetime fertility and labor market outcomes
• Development Economics: Application of historical quasi-experiments to inform modern policy design
• Economic History: Leveraging suffrage movements and demographic shifts as natural experiments

Her publication record (2016-2025) reveals a cohesive research program centered on quasi-experimental methods applied to large-scale administrative datasets. Key thematic clusters emerge: (1) Head Start's multifaceted impacts spanning funding mechanisms, program inputs, academic performance, infant health, and fertility outcomes; (2) Women's political empowerment effects on children's educational attainment; (3) Methodological innovations in historical data reconstruction using machine learning. Her work consistently employs regression discontinuity, difference-in-differences, and synthetic control designs to establish causal relationships.

Scientific awards and honors: No specific awards were documented in the provided source material.

Regarding academic mentorship, no current advisees or student supervision details were available in the source. Similarly, grant funding information, laboratory affiliations, or collaborative research teams were not specified. Her research profile suggests active engagement with historical administrative data analysis but lacks explicit mention of ongoing funded projects or institutional research centers.