Elaine L. Hill, Ph.D.

As an applied microeconomist, Dr. Hill's primary research interests are in health economics and environmental economics. In particular, her research focuses on the intersection between health, health policy, the environment and human capital formation. The unifying theme within these broad areas is the use of quasi-experimental designs to identify modifiable factors that are policy relevant. Her research also primarily studies vulnerable populations (e.g., pregnant women, children, rural populations, and older adults).

Dr. Hill is currently actively pursuing multiple funded research directions. First, her NIH-funded research utilizes quasi-experimental methods to study the impacts of shale gas development on human health in the US. Through support from a DP5 award, Dr. Hill's team has studied the impacts of shale gas development on childhood asthma, drinking water contamination, mortality and environmental justice concerns as well as the economic consequences of this industry via hedonic models. Second, Dr. Hill is PI of an NCI-funded R01 equivalent grant studying drug shortages in oncology care and Co-I with the University of Rochester NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Research Base which is directed by Drs. Gary Morrow and Karen Mustian. Third, she examines public policies and health system factors that influence the overdose crisis. Within this emerging area, Dr. Hill is studying opioid-related mortality, opioid use during pregnancy, and access to treatment. Her recent U01 grant (MPI Meredith Adams) provides five years of funding to study how the COVID-19 Pandemic exacerbated the opioid crisis with a particular focus on policies and economic factors. Fourth, Dr. Hill's team is funded by Health Effects Institute (PI Perry Hystad) to study traffic related air pollution, capital improvement projects to reduce traffic congestion, and their impacts on housing values, community change and infant health. Finally, Dr. Hill is co-lead of the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Pregnancy Domain Team, member of the Pain N3C Domain Team, and site-PI/Co-I of the RECOVER project to uncover risk factors for long COVID using N3C data.


Dr. Hill is a recipient of the NIH Director's Early Independence Award. She is also affiliated with Wilmot Cancer Institute, the Goergen Institute for Data Science, the Environmental Health Sciences Center and maintains courtesy faculty positions at external institutions. Dr. Hill received her BA in Economics and Mathematics at Oberlin College in 2005 and her PhD in Applied Economics from Cornell University in 2014.