Elisabeth Jacobs

Graduate Student in Sociology

Biographical Note

Elisabeth aims to utilize the vast array of tools available to social scientists in order to inform and influence policy and politics. Her research interests embrace a wide array of questions addressing the issue of economic security: Do Americans face more economic risk today than they have in the past? If so, why, and what are the consequences of this increased risk burden for families, communities, and the polity? How have social welfare policy decisions over the last half-century contributed to these trends?

Prior to beginning graduate work at Harvard, Elisabeth spent several years in New York City conducting policy research and advocacy on a wide range of domestic and local policy issues. She graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University with bachelor's degrees in American Studies and Gender Studies.

Elisabeth is a co-founder and co-director of New Vision, a domestic policy think tank that seeks to engage the next generation of scholars in developing the policy proposals and broader visions that will be needed to create widespread opportunity. She is currently a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, and will serve as ASA's Congressional Fellow in 2008.

10/23/2007

Research Interests

Causes and consequences of economic insecurity; social insurance policy and politics

Previous Degrees

B.A., Yale University (1999); M.A., Harvard University (2005)

Contact

617-496-5794 (FAX)

Elisabeth Jacobs
Governance Studies
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington DC 20036