José D. Pacas

MPC Primary Research Areas
Biography

I am a research scientist on the IPUMS International project and an advisor to the IPUMS USA and IPUMS CPS projects. Before joining IPUMS, I served as an economist in the Poverty Statistics Branch at the U.S. Census Bureau. I am currently serving as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Evaluation and Improvements to the Supplemental Poverty Measure. In 2019, I was selected for the Institute for Research on Poverty Scholars-in-Residence Program at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University and as an Annie E. Casey Rural Poverty Research Fellow. My current research focuses on the factors influencing poverty transitions, methodological improvements to urban and rural poverty measurement in public-use data and estimating the Supplemental Poverty Measure in the American Community Survey. Prior work has included estimating the population of undocumented immigrants in the US, estimating the net fiscal impact of labor unions, and a historical profile of the biomedical labor force. I have a Ph.D. in applied economics and a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. from Williams College.