Biography

UNLV Lee Business School professor Makayla Palmer studies macroeconomics, insurance, and health economics. Her expertise is used to provide insight into health policies in Nevada and the economics surrounding them.

Palmer has conducted research on issues including health care shortages, policies addressing the health of low-income and at-risk infants and children, subsidized insurance, Medicaid, marketplace insurance, teen smoking behaviors, and foster children. For example, one project examined how managed care insurance affects health care utilization of foster children relative to fee-for-service payments. Another project centered around how marketplace eligibility under the Affordable Care Act affects pregnancies and female labor decisions.  

Her work has been published in the Southern Economic Journal, Health Economics, and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.