Mark Duggan, Ph.D.

Recent Accomplishments

Duggan’s research focuses primarily on 1) the impact of government expenditure programs such as Medicaid, Social Security, and Supplemental Security Income on economic outcomes such as labor supply and poverty; and 2) health outcomes including infant health and avoidable hospitalizations. For example, in his 2003 paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (co-authored with David Autor) “The Rise in Disability Recipiency and the Decline in Unemployment,?Duggan investigates the causes and the consequences of the rapid increase in disability enrollment among non-elderly adults since the mid-1980s. His findings demonstrate that a rise in income inequality coupled with a change in the program’s medical eligibility criteria increased the financial incentive for less-skilled workers to apply for the program. In a follow-up project these authors showed that demographic factors such as the aging of the baby boom population and the increase in female labor force participation also contributed to this increase. Similarly in his 2004 paper in the Journal of Public Economics, “Does Contracting Out Increase the Efficiency of Government Programs? Evidence for Medicaid HMOs,?Duggan assesses the effect that the shift of more than 4 million Medicaid recipients into managed care organizations in the state of California had on both government spending and infant health outcomes. And in a more recent paper (co-authored with MPRC colleague Melissa Kearney) titled, “The Impact of Child SSI Enrollment: Evidence from the Survey of Income and Program Participation," he investigates the effect of the increase in SSI enrollment among disadvantaged children on poverty and health insurance coverage. Their findings demonstrate that this program, which has become the largest source of transfer income among families with children, substantially reduces poverty among recipient households. His work on similar issues has been published in the Journal of Health Economics, the Journal of Political Economy, the American Economic Review, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Funded Research

Duggan is currently principal investigator on an R03 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development (MPRC colleague Melissa Kearney is co-investigator). In this research they are assessing the effect of the SSI program on children receiving benefits. Additionally, he is co-investigator on a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (Fiona Scott Morton is P.I.) in which the authors are exploring the effect of the Medicaid program on the price and availability of pharmaceutical treatments to the 52 million individuals currently insured by the program. His research on DI has been funded by the Social Security Administration and his work on Medicaid by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Duggan is also a Co-Investigator in a pending grant proposal on estimating the benefits of new medical interventions (with William Evans) for the R.W. Johnson Foundation.

Future Plans

During the next few years, Duggan’s research will continue to focus on government expenditure programs. For example, in one current project he is assessing the effect of a change in the Department of Veterans Affairs Disability Compensation program on the health and economic well-being of veterans who served in the Vietnam War. Similarly, he is using administrative data to assess the effect of the Medicaid program on the health of low-income children and adults insured by the program. His past and current research also includes some projects on crime, with one current project (joint with Brian Jacob) investigating the effect of gun shows on crime and suicide rates.