Martha Bailey is an Associate Professor of Economics and a Research Associate Professor at the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. She is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Bailey received her B.A. from Agnes Scott College in 1997 and her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 2005. Prior to joining the University of Michigan economics faculty, she was a scholar in the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Program. She has served on the editorial board at the Journal of Economic History and currently serves as a deputy editor at Demography. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. In 2013, she was awarded the University of Michigan Class of 1923 Memorial Teaching Award, a college-level award for the outstanding teaching of undergraduates.

Bailey’s research focuses on issues in labor economics, demography and health in the United States, within the long-run perspective of economic history. Her work has examined the implications of the diffusion of modern contraception for women’s childbearing, career decisions, and the convergence in the gender gap. Her recent work focus on evaluating the shorter and longer-term effects of Great Society programs, including a co-edited book on the Legacies of the War on Poverty.

She joined IZA as a Research Fellow in January 2014.