Kate Musen

Seconded! It’s really wonderful to be graduating into such a supportive community of scholars.

I am beyond grateful for the support of my advisors—Sandy Black (@econsandy.bsky.social), Janet Currie, and Ebonya Washington—and I want to thank all of my mentors, co-authors, and friends who have helped me along the way.

I am so excited to share that I will be joining the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an assistant professor in Fall 2027, after spending the 2026–2027 academic year as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Population Center!

I love using marine animal encounters to explain ICD codes to my undergrad RAs. Do we really need to know if someone was bitten by an orca (W56.21), or is knowing that they had contact with an orca (W56.2) or had contact with any nonvenomous marine animal (W56) sufficient information?

They’re not perfect, but golly, public universities are one of the best engines of economic mobility we have

I think a pretty universal trait among Swatties is procrastinating on work with whatever other work gives a higher dopamine hit at the moment…

I had a great time talking about economics at #SEA2025, but, more importantly, I fulfilled a dream I’ve had since my term as president of the Save the Manatees Club in 2003-2004 as a second grader.

Thanks so much, Hani! It’s a much better paper because of your early feedback!

Atheen, you are too kind!

Thanks for sharing my work!

Generation abandoned? - Nuffield Foundation Young people in care are being left further behind: we need to examine why care is not providing the right foundation for adulthood

The findings really chime with the powerful argument made by @lisaharker.bsky.social about our care system pushing young people into independence at too young an age.

www.nuffieldfoundation.org/research/our...

The conclusion is really important: don't assume that investing in 'older' young people doesn't work. Rather think more broadly about the sorts of relational investments most likely to pay-off.

Want to help some of the most vulnerable young people in society get on in life?

Then extend the age at which young adults leave foster care, says this fascinating new US study by @khmusen.bsky.social

The effects - particularly on employment rates - are significant.

katemusen.com/uploads/jmp....

And check out my other papers on the opioid epidemic’s impact on students, Medicaid Rx rules and antipsychotic use, and historical interventions such as minimum wage hikes and salt iodization that improved infant survival and adult wellbeing: katemusen.com/research/

See the full paper here: katemusen.com/uploads/jmp....

In addition to studying the effects of more time in foster care, I show that more lenient enforcement of work and school requirements to stay in care improves economic outcomes for youth. Stricter enforcement pushes kids out of foster care more than it promotes productive activity in foster care.

The benefits far exceed the costs: every $1 spent yields at least $3 in benefits from increased earnings. Extended foster care shows large gains, challenging assumptions about low returns of government investment in older youth.

Using admin data and a difference-in-differences design, I find that each extra year in foster care raises college enrollment 6% and employment at ages 24–26 by 4%. Effects are also larger for youth with fewer outside options without extended foster care.

In 2012, California introduced extended foster care, creating a natural experiment to study the causal effects of additional time in foster care.

I'm on the #EconJobMarket! I study how policies and childhood environments shape outcomes of low-income & vulnerable kids.

In my JMP, I study the effects of allowing youth who would have aged out of foster care at 18 to stay until 21—offering support their peers not in foster care get from parents.

If you are at #2025APPAM, check out IRP scholar @khmusen.bsky.social, Dept of Econ at Columbia University, presenting: “Fostering a Gentler Flight from the Nest: Effects of Foster Care Reform on Labor Market Outcomes.” Sat 11/15, 8:30 to 10:00 am, Hyatt Regency Seattle, 7th Floor, Rm 707.

Also check out our accompanying Medicaid Pharmaceutical Policy Document Database on Open @icpsr.bsky.social, which we will be updating as we get more documents! www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/pr...

Doctor Decision Making and Patient Outcomes (Forthcoming Article) - Doctors often treat similar patients differently, which affects health outcomes and medical spending. We assess the recent literature on doctor decision making through the lens...

Forthcoming in the JEL: "Doctor Decision Making and Patient Outcomes" by Janet Currie, W. Bentley MacLeod, and Kate Musen. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

15 and 17. Zillennial (1996).

If only it were true, Overleaf.

Omg I just realized this is from Janetfest and I am the person in the background. You look so serious that I thought this was from sort of congressional testimony or something. 😂

ATTN: @econsandy.bsky.social