Emily Lawler -

Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Policy

Dr. Lawler is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Public Administration and Policy, with a courtesy appointment in the John Munro Godfrey, Sr. Department of Economics. She is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University in August 2018.

Dr. Lawler’s research is primarily in the fields of health economics and applied microeconomics. Her research focuses on the effects of public policies on maternal and child health, as well as on the impacts of vaccination policies on health and health behaviors. Dr. Lawler’s work has been published in a number of leading economics and medical journals, including the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Annals of Internal Medicine.

Education

Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, Economics, 2018

Areas of Expertise

Health economics
Applied microeconomics
Development economics

Research Interests

My research focuses on the effects of public policies on maternal and child health, both in the United States and in the developing world. My recent work focuses on the effects of vaccination policy in the United States.

Selected Publications

Lawler, E. C., & Yewell, K. G. (2023). “The Effect of Hospital Postpartum Care Regulations on Breastfeeding and Maternal Time Allocation”. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.

Carpenter, C. S., & Lawler, E. C. (2019). “Direct and spillover effects of middle school vaccination requirements”. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 11(1), 95-125.

Lawler, E. C. (2017). “Effectiveness of vaccination recommendations versus mandates: evidence from the hepatitis A vaccine”. Journal of Health Economics, 52, 45-62.