Donna Gilleskie

Ph.D., Professor, Economics
Chair, Department of Economics
donna_gilleskie@unc.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Google Scholar Profile
PubMed Publications
CPC Publications
ORCID iD

As a health economist, I study the economic behavior of individuals as it relates to their health. The approach reflected in my work involves understanding decisionmaking over time, so it is likely to involve forward-looking optimization theory and dynamic empirical models. I've studied smoking behavior, employment behaviors, and medical and non-medical health input behaviors.

Donna Gilleskie's research interests are a mixture of health economics, labor economics, and applied econometrics. Her work generally involves analyses of observations over time using theory-driven modeling of dynamic behaviors and rigorous empirical approaches to explore health and labor supply decisions and outcomes of individuals. Dr. Gilleskie's current work includes a project using AddHealth data to understand the impact of pre-pregnancy health on birth outcomes. She and UNC School of Medicine researchers have received funding from the Renal Research Institute to study the roles of observable patient-level medical care-related behaviors (using electronic medical record and linked survey data) on the evolution of health markers measuring kidney function among adolescents with chronic kidney disease. She has also been funded by NIMHD to study the interrelated relationships among the criminal justice system, the welfare system, and the labor market to evaluate how they impact health disparities. This transdisciplinary work is with researchers from the UNC Schools of Nursing and Social Work.

Associated Projects

Associated Research Themes