Martha Bailey, PhD

Martha J. Bailey is a Professor in the Department of Economics and Director of the California Center for Population Research at UCLA. Her research focuses on issues in labor economics, demography and health in the United States, within the long-run perspective of economic history. Her work has examined the implications of the diffusion of modern contraception for women’s childbearing, career decisions and the convergence in the gender gap. Recent projects focus on the 1960s, including evaluations of the shorter and longer-term consequences of War on Poverty programs and the labor-market effects of equal pay legislation in the US. Dr. Bailey directs the LIFE-M project, which links millions of vital records with census data for the early 20th century U.S., and the M-CARE study, which evaluates how more affordable contraception affects the lives of Americans.