Her research studies how the health and disability insurance systems affect individual economic behaviors, such as labor supply and the consumption of medical care. She received her MPP in public policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and her Ph.D. in economics also from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining Harvard, Dr. Maestas was a senior economist at RAND, where she served as director of the Economics, Sociology, and Statistics Research Department and director of the Center for Disability Research.