Melissa Kearney

Melissa S. Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings; a scholar affiliate and member of the board of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO); and a scholar affiliate of the MIT Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). Kearney served as Director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings from 2013-2015 and currently serves on the Project's Advisory Council. Kearney's academic research focuses on domestic policy issues, especially issues related to social mobility and education, poverty and inequality, and social policy and the economics of the family. Many of her papers examine the effect of government programs and economic conditions on the behavior and outcomes of economically disadvantaged populations. Her work has been published in leading academic journals and has been frequently cited in the popular press. Kearney teaches Public Economics at both the undergraduate and PhD level at the University of Maryland.