Elizabeth Powers

Elizabeth Powers

Primary Affiliation: Education, Learning, and Child and Family Well-Being Working Group; Equity, Justice, and Human Flourishing Working Group; COVID-19 Task Force

Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Skill Highlights

Economics

Quantitative Analysis

Administrative Data

Poverty and Inequality

Welfare programs

Featured Work

Milestones

$250,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study nutrition access disparities for children in home-based (paid) child care using IDPH administrative data
Publication of findings on home-based (paid) child care and government nutrition program using Market Rate Survey data
Formation of an interdisciplinary working group “Feeding Kids in Care”
First “Market Rate Survey” analysis of administrative data on child care for the Illinois Department of Public Services

EXPERIENCE &
BACKGROUND

ABOUT

Elizabeth T. Powers is an Associate Professor in the Economics Department and a faculty member of the Institute of Government & Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to her position with the University of Illinois, Dr. Powers worked in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland as an Economist, for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in the George H.W. Bush Administration as a Junior Staff Economist during her Ph.D. program, and for the Economic Research Service of the USDA during college. Dr. Powers’ research focuses on the influence of public policy on well-being across the life-course. Important areas of work include the unintended effects of social policies aimed at single-parent households, persons with disabilities, and the elderly; caregiving in non-familial settings such as daycare and nursing homes; and the caregiving workforce. Her current research interests are focused on child development, including projects on the impact of important family events on children’s healthy development; factors influencing how children are parented; and participation of family care providers in the Child and Adult Care Feeding Program. Dr. Powers is also currently engaged in research on the college pipeline of women majoring in economics.

Institute of Government & Public Affairs, U of I System. 

Senior Scholar, 2018 to Present. 

Family Resiliency Center, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL.  

Affiliate, 2016 to Present. 

Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL. 

Faculty Affiliate, 2010 to Present. 

College of Business, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL. 

Faculty Associate for the Center for Business and Public Policy, 2007 to Present.

University of Michigan Retirement Research Center. 

Affiliated Researcher, 2004 to Present.

Past affiliations:
National Poverty Center, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Sloan Work and Family Research Network at Boston College, 2008.
Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research
Aging Initiative, UIUC
Disability Research Institute, UIUC

Institute of Government and Public Affairs, U of I System. 

Senior Scholar, 2018 to Present. 

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL. 

Affiliate of the Family Resiliency Center, 2016 to Present. 

Faculty Affiliate of the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program, 2010 to Present. 

Faculty Associate of the Center for Business and Public Policy, 2007 to Present. 

University of Michigan. 

Affiliated Researcher of the Retirement Research Center, 2004 to Present. 

The University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D. in Economics, 1994. 

Dissertation: “Essays on the Incentive Effects of U.S. Welfare Programs”
Committee: Alan J. Auerbach (chair), David Neumark, Stephen P. Zeldes

Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York; B.A., cum laude with departmental honors in Economics, 1986. 

Engagement

$234K

Robin Fretwell Wilson is the Director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs and the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair in Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, where she served as the Associate Dean for Public Engagement. At IGPA, Professor Wilson also leads IGPA’s Substance Use Disorder Working Group. Robin Fretwell Wilson is the Director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs and the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair in Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, where she served as the Associate Dean for

Recent Publications

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HONORS & AWARDS

2008: Applied Consumer Economics Award for the paper “Child Support Across State Lines: Distance, Interstate Enforcement, and Welfare Reform.”
Sloan Work and Family Research Network at Boston College, “Who’s Who in Work and Family 2008.”
Arnold O. Beckman Award. Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana, 1999.
2002: Dean's Award for Excellence in Research (untenured division), College of Commerce, Office of Research.
Named to Incomplete List of Teachers Considered “Excellent” six times.