Current Research

Social/structural determinants of health

We are currently conducting a case study of the passage of the Child Tax Credit in Minnesota in 2023, using a framework of social and structural determinants of health and health inequities we developed (Karatekin et al., 2024).

We have recently finished up two studies in which we examined the effects of electoral partisan bias on children. In the first study, we examined the effects of electoral bias on generosity of state budgetary and regulatory policies affecting child well-being between 1980 and 2019. In the second study, we extended this research to examine the effects of electoral partisan bias on infant mortality and preterm births. We are currently revising this paper.

Graduate students in the lab are also conducting studies on neighborhood effects, parental incarceration, and firearm violence. Undergraduate students are doing projects on parental leave and child marriage laws in the U.S.