AAEA at 2026 ASSA Annual Meeting

T.W. Schultz Lecture & AAEA Reception

Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026
6:15 PM - 8:45 PM (EST)
Marriott Philadelphia Downtown
Hilary Hoynes, Chancellor's Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

"The Social Safety Net as an Investment in Children"
Professor Hilary Hoynes’s talk will review research on the impacts of the social safety net on children's long-term outcomes. Traditionally, economic research has emphasized the incentive effects of tax credits and transfer programs, often neglecting their potential benefits, particularly for children. Hoynes will review a growing body of evidence evaluating the impacts of childhood exposure to programs like food stamps, the EITC, and Medicaid on long term outcomes including health, education, earnings, and criminal justice involvement in adulthood. She will also discuss recent evidence from RCTs on the effect of unconditional cash supports on short term child outcomes. She will present cost-benefit analyses like the Marginal Value of Public Funds to evaluate the extent to which these programs represent a public investment in children.

Speaker Bio
Hilary Hoynes is Chancellor’s Professor of Economics and Public Policy where she also directs the Berkeley Opportunity Lab. She is an economist who works on poverty, inequality, and the social safety net. Her current research examines how access to the social safety net in early life affects children’s later life health and human capital outcomes.

Professor Hoynes is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Art and Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists. She has served as Co-Editor of the American Economic Review and the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. She has held positions on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on National Statistics, Governor Gavin Newsom’s Council of Economic Advisors, and was Vice President of the American Economic Association. She was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty and the Federal Commission on Evidence-Based Policy Making. She is a recipient of the Holland Medal for lifetime contributions to public finance and the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award for contributions to women in Economics. Dr. Hoynes received her PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 1992 and her undergraduate degree in Economics and Mathematics from Colby College in 1983.