Ilyana Kuziemko


Ilyana Kuziemko is a Professor of Economics at Princeton University, where she has taught since 2014. She previously served as the David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School from July 2013 to June 2014 and as Associate Professor from July 2012 to June 2013. From 2007 to 2012, she was an Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and Woodrow Wilson School. She also served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2009–2010 under The Office of Microeconomic Analysis. During her tenure, she worked primarily on the development and early implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Education

Ilyana Kuziemko obtained an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University where she graduated summa cum laude in 2000. After being selected as a Rhodes scholar, she studied at Oxford University from 2000–2002 where she obtained a B.A. in Mathematics. She went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, where she graduated in 2007.

Occupation and affiliations

Ilyana Kuziemko's research primarily focuses on economic inequality. Her research interests include:

Research on voter preferences regarding redistributive policies

Support for Redistribution in an Age of Rising Inequality: New Stylized Facts and Some Tentative Explanations
To determine the changes in level of support for redistribution in the U.S., Ilyana Kuziemko, Vivekinan Ashok, and Ebonya Washington analyze American survey data over several decades. Although economic inequality in the U.S. has been increasing since 1970, the study finds that the support for redistribution has remained flat, and has decreased significantly for the elderly and for African-Americans. Possible explanations for this trend are explored, and the authors argue that the elderly have grown less supportive of redistribution due to worries that it would come at their expense through cuts to Medicare. The authors also argue that African-American attitudes surrounding fairness in economic issues have increased, explaining the decline in support for redistribution.
How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments
Ilyana Kuziemko, Michael I. Norton, Emmanuel Saez, and Stefanie Stantcheva use randomized online surveys on Amazon Mechanical Turk to analyze the effects of information regarding income inequality and taxes on preferences for redistribution. Randomized treatments were provided to approximately 4,000 respondents with varying information on income inequality in the U.S., the estate tax, and the relationship between tax rates on the highest income group and economic growth. The authors find that the treatment has substantial effects on views about the significance of inequality as a problem. Conversely, the treatment has limited effects on preferences surrounding redistributive policies. Lastly, the authors observe that treatments informing respondents that the estate tax only affects very wealthy families have a large positive effect on support for the estate tax.

Research on the implications of U.S. public health insurance programs on vulnerable groups

Does Managed Care Widen Infant Health Disparities? Evidence from Texas Medicaid
In this study, the effects of the transition from fee-for-service programs to managed care plans on the disparities in infant health outcomes are analyzed. Ilyana Kuziemko, Katherine Meckel, and Maya Rossin-Slater find that mortality rates and pre-term birth rates increase for black infants, by 15 percent and 7 percent, respectively, and decrease for Hispanic infants by 22 percent and 7 percent, respectively, under private Medicaid Managed Care plans.
The Demand for Health Insurance Among Uninsured Americans: Results of a Survey Experiment and Implications for Policy
To assess the willingness of uninsured Americans to pay for a health insurance plan. Alan B. Krueger and Ilyana Kuziemko conduct a survey experiment on approximately 1,000 individuals through a Gallup-Healthways Daily Poll. The authors observe a higher price elasticity than previously found in other studies. Among the respondents who reported being uninsured, 60 percent would purchase insurance if offered a $2,000 annual premium. Krueger and Kuziemko argue that these results suggest that under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, an estimate of 29 million uninsured individuals are projected to gain coverage. Furthermore, the authors argue that the results of the study show that the effects of such policies in increasing coverage rates have been greatly underestimates in previous studies.

Research on the U.S. criminal justice system

How Should Inmates Be Released From Prison? An Assessment of Parole Versus Fixed Sentence Regimes
To study how parole and fixed sentencing affect recidivism rates, Ilyana Kuziemko analyzes data from the Georgia Department of Corrections over several decades. The study finds that parole boards efficiently set prison time based on a prisoner's recidivism risk, thus reducing recidivism within three years of release by 1.3 percentage points. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the "90% policy" – where prisoners are required to complete at least 90% of their original sentence without the possibility of parole – reduces the inmates' incentives to rehabilitate, resulting in an increase in recidivism rates.

Grants and awards

Notable awards, honours, and fellowships

Academic publications