Research

My research falls into three general areas: 

I evaluate relationships between other social service sectors and health, including policies addressing social determinants of health in the housing, education, and family services sectors.

I study how well Medicaid works in different settings, how Medicaid policy impacts wellbeing, and how Medicaid interacts with other sources of health coverage. 

I document the experiences of families coping with chronic illness, including the burden of childhood conditions like congenital heart disease.

You can find a full list of my publications, presentations, professional experience, and works-in-progress on my CV, and my Google Scholar profile can be accessed at this link.

Job market paper

My job market paper, titled "Health Shocks and Housing Instability among Urban Medicaid Enrollees," leverages novel high-frequency data in a quasi-experimental design to estimate the impact of health events on future housing instability for Medicaid-enrolled families. I also examine mechanisms from the health and housing sectors that alter the size of the relationship. 

I use panel regression models in a comparative event study analysis. I find that health shocks – defined as sudden hospitalizations after two hospital-free years – lead to an immediate increase in housing instability. Health shocks generate an increase of 8.8 additional quarterly moves per 1,000 enrollees (a 15-20% relative increase) and a 0.1 to 0.2 percentage point increase in extreme mobility (a 20-40% relative increase in this rare but policy-relevant outcome). I observe weaker, though still significant, effects on the probability of living in particularly unstable situations (shelters, street). There is variation in the effect size along several policy-relevant dimensions: effects on housing instability are smaller for those with access to subsidized housing, a usual source of outpatient care, social support, and higher quality inpatient care, suggesting potential areas for policy intervention to break this relationship. These results can inform design of cross-sector interventions that health systems and housing agencies are developing to improve outcomes in both domains.  Feel free to email me for a draft if you are interested and/or would like to provide feedback.

Selected peer-reviewed publications


Dragan KL, Ellen IG, and Glied SA. (2019) Gentrification and The Health of Low-Income Children in New York City. Health Affairs. 38(9):1425-1432.


Dragan KL, Desai SM, Billings J, and Glied SA. (2022) Association of Insurance Mix and Diagnostic Coding Practices in New York State Hospitals. JAMA Health Forum. 2;3(9):e222919.


Hong K, Dragan K and Glied S. (2019) Seeing and Hearing: The Impacts of New York City’s Universal Prekindergarten Program on the Health of Low-Income Children. Journal of Health Economics. 64:93-107.


Crook S, Dragan K, Woo JL, Neidell M, Jiang P, Cook S et al. (2023) Long-Term Health Care Utilization After Cardiac Surgery in Children Covered Under Medicaid. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 81(16):1605-1617

Ellen IG, Dragan KL, and Glied SA. (2020) Renovating Subsidized Housing: The Impact on Tenants’ Health. Health Affairs. 39(2):224-232.


Dragan KL, Ellen IG, and Glied S. (2020) Does gentrification displace poor children and their families? New Evidence from Medicaid Data in New York City. Regional Science and Urban Economics. 83:103481.


Anderson BA, Dragan K, Crook S, Woo JL, Cook S, Hannan EL, et al. (2021) Improving Longitudinal Outcomes, Efficiency, and Equity in the Care of Patients With Congenital Heart Disease. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 78(17):1703-1713.


Selected working papers, white papers, and commentaries


Scheckler S. Dragan KL, Molinsky J, and Herbert C. (2022) Health Spending Among Older Adults Before and After Mortgage Payoff. Working Paper WI21-10 for the Center for Financial Security, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dragan, K. (2018 Oct 31). Perspectives on Cross-Sector Collaboration from Academia and Government. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Policies for Action Blog. https://www.policiesforaction.org/blog/perspectives-cross-sector-collaboration-academia-and-government 

Dragan, K. (2018 Jul 18). Partnerships Inspire Us to Ask the Next Big Question. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Policies for Action Blog. https://www.policiesforaction.org/blog/partnerships-inspire-us-ask-next-big-question

Baquero M, Caramanica Zweig K, Meropol S, Vasan A, Delany-Brumsey A, Veras M, Chaitoo N, Vidal G, Demyan A, Davis C, Wang SS, Dragan K, Billings J. (2021). Health Care Needs and Utilization Among New Yorkers With Criminal Justice System Involvement. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, and NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York, NY.

Sharp M, Dragan K, Billings J. (2018). The Right Prescription: Assessing Potentially Inappropriate Use of Antibiotics Among New York’s Medicaid Population. United Hospital Fund, New York, NY.

Farley S, Dragan K, Hinterland K, Stalvey L. (2018). Secondhand Smoke and Smoke-Free Housing in New York City. NYC Vital Signs, 17(1); 1-4.

King L, Hinterland K, Dragan KL, Driver CR, Harris TG, Gwynn RC, Linos N, Barbot O, Bassett MT. (2015). New York City Community Health Profiles 2015; 13(1-59).