- Phone:
- (812) 856-5789
- Email:
- alorte@iu.edu
- Research areas:
- Social Policy and Health
- Areas of Interest:
- Social Policy
- Substance Use and Mental Health
- Crime
SPEA 339A
Education
- Ph.D., University of Florida, 2017
- M.A., University of Florida, 2013
- B.A., Florida International University, 2011
Courses
- Public Management Economics
- Contemporary Economic Issues in Public Affairs
Biography
Dr. Alberto Ortega is an Assistant Professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. His current work focuses on the causes and structural factors that lead to risky behaviors and explores how public policy can mitigate the adverse consequences for vulnerable and low-income populations. This research includes contributions in the areas of substance use, mental health, crime, and policing. He has published in various outlets, including the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, Contemporary Economic Policy, Demography, Economics of Education Review, Educational Researcher, Health Economics, Journal of Economics Race and Policy, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Review of Economics of the Household, and The Review of Black Political Economy. Various organizations, including the Arnold Ventures Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation have funded his research.
His teaching interests include applied microeconomics and public policy. He currently teaches a course on public management economics.
Dr. Ortega is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research affiliate at the Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University and the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities at University of Notre Dame. He was also an Emerging Poverty Scholars Fellow at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Research Fellow at the Community Development Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and a Resource Center for Minority Aging Research Scientist with USC’s Minority Aging Health Economics Research Center. In 2017, he was an NSF Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics Fellow and an American Economic Association Summer Program Fellow and mentor. He was also the chair of the communications committee for the American Society for Hispanic Economists from 2020-2023. Dr. Ortega obtained his doctorate in economics from the University of Florida.
Highlights
- Research Grants on Criminal Justice, Arnold Ventures Foundation (2025-2028)
- Spencer Foundation Research Grants on Education (2023-2028)
- Russell Sage Foundation Pipeline Grant (2023-2024)
- Emerging Poverty Fellow, Institute of Research on Poverty, (2022-present), Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- USC's Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (USC-RCMAR) Pilot Grant, National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging, 2019
Selected Works
- “Black Lives: The High Cost of Segregation,” (with Robynn Cox, Jamein Cunningham, and Kenneth Whaley) American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (2026)
- “Treatment for mental health and substance use: Spillovers to police safety,” Journal of Human Resources (with Monica Deza, Catherine MacLean, Thanh Lu) (2026)
- “Medicaid Expansion and Mental Health Treatment: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act,” Health Economics, (2023)
- “The Effect of the Opioid Crisis on Patenting,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (2023) (with Zachary Cohle)
- “The Highs and the Lows: Recreational Marijuana Laws and Mental Health Treatment,” Health Economics (2023)
- “Distance Learning and Parental Mental Health During COVID-19,” (with Cassandra Davis, Jevay Grooms, Joaquin Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba, and Edward Vargas), Educational Researcher (2020)