- Phone:
- (812) 855-4556
- Email:
- alorte@iu.edu
- Research areas:
- Policy Analysis
- Public Finance and Economics
- Social Policy and Health
- Areas of Interest:
- Social policy
- Substance use and mental health
- Race and ethnicity
- 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 in the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. He is an applied public policy researcher with contributions in the areas of health and social policy with a particular focus on the well-being of marginalized and vulnerable populations.
His research examines issues surrounding access to healthcare and determinants of health outcomes, including substance use, mental health, and mortality resulting from victimization. He has published in various outlets, including AEA: Papers and Proceedings, Contemporary Economic Policy, Economics of Education Review, Educational Researcher, Health Economics, Journal of Economics Race and Policy, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Review of Economics of the Household, and The Review of Black Political Economy.
His teaching interests include applied microeconomics and public policy. He currently teaches a course on contemporary microeconomic issues in public affairs. He has previously taught courses in public finance and intermediate microeconomics.
Dr. Ortega obtained his doctorate in economics from the University of Florida, and his bachelor's is in economics from Florida International University. Before joining the O'Neill School faculty, he was an assistant professor of Economics at Whitman College. He was also a Resource Center for Minority Aging research scientist with USC's Minority Aging Health Economics Research Center. Ortega was an NSF Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics Fellow and an American Economic Association Summer Program Fellow and mentor. Ortega is currently the chair of the communications committee for the American Society for Hispanic Economists (ASHE).
Highlights
- Emerging Poverty Fellow, Institute of Research on Poverty, (2022-present), Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Substance Use Research Grant (2022-2023) , IU Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge
- Indiana University Social Sciences Research Funding Program, 2021
- USC's Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (USC-RCMAR) Pilot Grant, National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging, 2019
- Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics, National Science Foundation, 2017-18
- American Economic Association Summer Program Fellow, 2016
Selected Works
- "Medicaid Expansion and Mental Health Treatment: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act,"Health Economics, (2023)
- "Substance Use Disorders among Older Populations: What role does race and ethnicity play in treatment and completion?," (with Jevay Grooms) Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, (2022)
- “Flipping the Script: The Effect of Opioid Prescription Monitoring on Specialty-Specific Provider Behavior,” (with Alice Ellyson and Jevay Grooms), Health Economics (2021)
- “Distance Learning and Parental Mental Health During COVID-19,” (with Cassandra Davis, Jevay Grooms, Joaquin Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba, and Edward Vargas), Educational Researcher, (2020)
- “State Partisanship and Higher Education,”Economics of Education Review, 76: 101977, (2020)
- “Examining Medicaid Expansion and the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders," (with J. Grooms), AEA Papers and Proceedings, 109: 187-92 (2019)
