Elira Kuka is an Assistant Professor of Economics at George Washington University. She is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and a Research Affiliate at IZA - Institute of Labor Economics. Prior to joining GWU, she received a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College (MA), an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Davis. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Public and Labor Economics, and they are centered around understanding how government policies affect individual behavior and family wellbeing, to what extent they provide social insurance, and how effectively they alleviate poverty and inequality.