Marina Lovchikova, PhD | Covered California

Bio

Hello! I am a PhD-trained Senior Researcher at Covered California.

Projects in Health Insurance

Steering to Better Choices: Choice Set Size and Choice of Dominated Option in Health Insurance
Presented at ASHEcon 2024
Health Plan Switching and Healthcare Utilization: A Randomized Clinical Trial (with Langou Lian and Andrew Feher )
Automating benefits delivery: lowering health insurance costs for unemployment insurance recipients (with Langou Lian and Andrew Feher)
Secure Communities and Health Insurance (with Muazzam Toshmatova)
Presented at ASHEcon 2024
Unemployment and Health Insurance: Evidence from California’s Health Benefit Exchange
Presented at AcademyHealth Research Meeting 2022

Projects in Macroeconomics

Automation, Career Trajectory and Education (with Muazzam Toshmatova)
Capital Controls and the Global Financial Cycle (with Johannes Matschke)
Abstract: Capital flows to emerging markets are volatile and related to global financial conditions. In this paper, we examine the response of capital inflow controls to the global financial cycle. We make two contributions: First, we provide a normative justification for countercyclical capital inflow restrictions in response to international financial distress.We subsequently examine the factual response of 22 emerging market economies which actively manage their capital inflows. We find that restrictions tend to decrease during financial turmoil and vice versa, consistent with mitigating the exposure to international vulnerabilities.
Employed and Poor? Wages, Automation and Policies
Abstract: I explore the effect of automation on workers’ welfare in a general equilibrium model. I demonstrate that the effects of capabilities and prices of automation on employment and wages are indeed different, and they depend on whether individuals adjust their education decisions. First, when education is not adjusted, my model shows that a decline in the price of automation increases the employment rate but lowers wages. Secondly, when education adjusts, I show that declining prices and expanding capabilities of automation increase both wages and employment rates. Finally, I find that between 2005 and 2016, advancement in automation rather than institutional changes or a shift to services accounts for a significant portion of changes in educational attainment, employment, and wage inequality.
Presented at SAMMF workshop for PhD Candidates (Nov, 2020) and NABE Tec2020 Poster Sessions (Nov, 2020)
Earlier version was presented at 94th WEAI conference (San Francisco, 2019) and 83d MEA Annual Conference (St.Louis, 2019) with the title “Technology and Education in Frictional Labor Markets”
Innovation, Competition and Automation Exposure
I examine a choice of innovation strategy when firm faces two shocks simultaneously: a decline in automation prices and an increase in competitive pressure. Using the Community Innovation Survey and the Input-Output tables for European countries in the 2000-2014 period, I find that industry routine intensity is positively associated with firm engagement in innovating activities. Furthermore, in response to competition, firms in such industries are more likely to engage in product rather than process innovation. Exposure to low-wage countries through intermediate input does not impact innovation activities at the firm level.
Earlier version was presented at 15th WEAI International Conference (Tokyo, 2019) with the title “Routine Intensity, Innovation and Competition”

Mentoring and Teaching

Mentoring at UC Davis, UCSF and Covered California

Instructor and Graduate Teaching Assistant at California State University, East Bay and University of California, Davis:

Designed and presented learning materials on wide variety of topics in economics, statistical data analysis
Evaluated and provided feedback to large student groups
Advised students on the use of scientific statistical methods, data collection and visualization techniques

List of topics and classes:

Economic Research Practices (Spring 2020, Graduate level)
Principles of Finance (Summer 2019, Department of Agricultural Economics; undergraduate level)
Financial Economics x2 (S20, W20)
Intermediate Macroeconomics x4 (F19, SSI18, W18, F16)
Analysis of Economic Data x3 (SSI19, S18, S17)
Economics of Labor Markets (S19)
Game Theory (W19)
Topics in Immigration (F18)
Intermediate Microeconomics (F17)
World Economic History (W17)
Economics of Education (SSII16)
U.S. Economic History (S16)
Principles of Macroeconomics (F15)