Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests
Health economics; Economics of child health, especially infant health; Factors that impact mothers' prenatal investment decisions and child health at birth.

Education
2006 Ph.D. Economics Cornell University , NY
1998 B.A. Economics Salem College , NC

Statement of Interests
Aparna Lhila's current work examines the economic determinants of child health at birth. Her research is focused on studying the effect of parents’ decision-making on child health outcomes, particularly the short and long-term health effects of parents’ decisions made during the prenatal period.  She is also interested in examining inequality; such as the relationship between socioeconomic inequality and infant health, and the drivers of racial disparity in child health outcomes.

Publications
"Prenatal Health Investment Decisions: Does The Child's Sex Matter?" (with Kosali I. Simon).  Demography 2008 45(4): 885-905

“Rural/Urban Differences in Health Care Are Not Uniform Across States” (with Barbara A. Ormond and Stephen Zuckerman). Assessing the New Federalism Issue Brief No. B-11 2000. The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/b11.pdf

1999 NSAF Data Editing and Imputation (with T. Black, J. Coder, N. Converse, V. Cox, S. Dipko, F. Scheuren, M. Skinner and N. Vaden-Kiernan). Assessing the New Federalism NSAF Methodology Report No. 10 1999. The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1999_Methodology_10.pdf

Working Papers
“Does Government Spending on Healthcare Explain the Relationship between Income Inequality and Birthweight?” under review.

“Birth Spacing and Child Health at Birth: An Instrumental Variables Approach”
 “Bargaining for Prenatal Investment: How Decision-Making Power Affects the Health of Unborn Children” (with Amanda J. Felkey)

“What’s Driving the Black-White Difference in Low Birthweight in the U.S.?” (with Sharon K. Long)
“Is There an Effect of Relative Deprivation on Child and Maternal Health?” (with Kosali I. Simon)

Teaching
Foundations of Policy Analysis (PADP 6950)
Data Analysis and Statistical Inference (PADP 8120)
Economics of Health Policy (PADP 8610)