<< Back to Faculty Adam Leive Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics Education & Training PhD, Managerial Science and Applied Economics, Wharton School, 2016 MSc, Health Economics, University of York, 2006 AB, Public Policy, Princeton University, 2005 434-924-0049 leive@virginia.edu Garrett Hall L038 Curriculum Vitae Research Website Areas of focus Domestic Policy & Politics Economics Health Policy Adam Leive is an assistant professor of public policy and economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and in the Department of Economics (by courtesy) at the University of Virginia. He is a health economist with research interests at the intersection of consumer decision-making, household finance, and public economics. He uses large administrative datasets to study policy-relevant questions about individual behavior in a range of insurance programs. His primary area of research seeks to understand consumer behavior in important and complicated life-cycle decisions, focusing on health insurance and saving. He studies how consumer choices in these domains affect market outcomes and how policy can improve household financial security and economic welfare. A large set of his work focuses on Health Savings Accounts, which aim to lower health care costs by offering tax incentives encouraging people to trade off current consumption against future consumption. By studying links between insurance, saving, and employment that have been relatively unexplored, his research aims to produce novel insights about how people respond to incentives in complex life-cycle decisions. He is also interested in how these choices, and broader economic forces, can influence inequalities in both financial resources and health. At Batten, Leive has taught courses on research methods and data analysis, and the economics of social insurance and means-tested programs. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and his B.A. from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. Before graduate school, he worked at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, DC. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Social Security Administration, TIAA Institute, and Pension Research Council. Related Content Health Insurance Design Meets Saving Incentives: Consumer Responses to Complex Contracts Research To lower health care costs, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer tax incentives encouraging people to trade off current consumption against future consumption. This paper tests whether consumers use HSAs as self-insurance over the life cycle. Has Mortality Risen Disproportionately for the Least Educated? Research Two Batten professors examine whether the least educated population groups experienced the worst mortality trends at the beginning of the 21st century by measuring changes in mortality across education quartiles. Wage Insurance and Labor Market Trajectories Research Wage insurance provides income support to displaced workers who find reemployment at a lower wage. This group of scholars study the effects of the wage insurance provisions of the US Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program using administrative data from the state of Virginia. What they find suggests that wage insurance eligibility increases short-run employment probabilities and that wage insurance and TAA training may yield similar long-run effects on employment and earnings. Armed with Humor, Batten Student Named Among Nation's Top Four Army ROTC Cadets News The Navy Federal Credit Union has selected Batten student Jacob Shapero (MPP '21) as one of four Army ROTC All-Americans nationwide. Q&A: Do Work Requirements Aid Those on Public Assistance? Batten Professor Says No. News Adam Leive, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Batten School, questions the effectiveness of work requirements in public assistance. New Case: Losses (and Gains) from Health Reform for Non-Medicaid Uninsureds Research This article examines how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would change financial resources for and transfers to the previously uninsured if they were to purchase coverage in the ACA insurance exchanges (marketplaces) in 2014. The results suggest that the law provides gains to some, relative to their spending in the pre-ACA period, particularly those in poor health and with very low incomes, but it also potentially imposes financial losses on many, again compared to their experience when uninsured. A Cautionary Tale in Comparative Effectiveness Research: Perils and Pitfalls of Observational Data Analysis Research Health care costs represent a nearly 18% of U.S. gross domestic product and 20% of government spending. While there is detailed information on where these health care dollars are spent, there is much less evidence on how this spending affects health. Dying to Win? Olympic Gold Medals and Longevity Research Contrary to conventional wisdom, winners die over one year earlier than losers View All
Health Insurance Design Meets Saving Incentives: Consumer Responses to Complex Contracts Research To lower health care costs, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer tax incentives encouraging people to trade off current consumption against future consumption. This paper tests whether consumers use HSAs as self-insurance over the life cycle.
Has Mortality Risen Disproportionately for the Least Educated? Research Two Batten professors examine whether the least educated population groups experienced the worst mortality trends at the beginning of the 21st century by measuring changes in mortality across education quartiles.
Wage Insurance and Labor Market Trajectories Research Wage insurance provides income support to displaced workers who find reemployment at a lower wage. This group of scholars study the effects of the wage insurance provisions of the US Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program using administrative data from the state of Virginia. What they find suggests that wage insurance eligibility increases short-run employment probabilities and that wage insurance and TAA training may yield similar long-run effects on employment and earnings.
Armed with Humor, Batten Student Named Among Nation's Top Four Army ROTC Cadets News The Navy Federal Credit Union has selected Batten student Jacob Shapero (MPP '21) as one of four Army ROTC All-Americans nationwide.
Q&A: Do Work Requirements Aid Those on Public Assistance? Batten Professor Says No. News Adam Leive, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Batten School, questions the effectiveness of work requirements in public assistance.
New Case: Losses (and Gains) from Health Reform for Non-Medicaid Uninsureds Research This article examines how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would change financial resources for and transfers to the previously uninsured if they were to purchase coverage in the ACA insurance exchanges (marketplaces) in 2014. The results suggest that the law provides gains to some, relative to their spending in the pre-ACA period, particularly those in poor health and with very low incomes, but it also potentially imposes financial losses on many, again compared to their experience when uninsured.
A Cautionary Tale in Comparative Effectiveness Research: Perils and Pitfalls of Observational Data Analysis Research Health care costs represent a nearly 18% of U.S. gross domestic product and 20% of government spending. While there is detailed information on where these health care dollars are spent, there is much less evidence on how this spending affects health.
Dying to Win? Olympic Gold Medals and Longevity Research Contrary to conventional wisdom, winners die over one year earlier than losers