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Karen Kopecky is a research economist and adviser on the macroeconomics team in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Her major field of study is macroeconomics with particular interests in public finance, insurance markets, retirement, health, and computational methods for macroeconomic modeling.
Dr. Kopecky is also a visiting scholar of the economics department at Emory University. Prior to joining the Bank in 2010, she spent four years as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Western Ontario. In the fall of 2009, she was a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. She has published her research in several journals including Econometrica, Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Review of Economic Dynamics, and the International Economic Review.
Dr. Kopecky received her doctorate in economics in 2007 and her master's degree in economics in 2003, both from the University of Rochester. She received her bachelor of arts degree in economics and her bachelor of science degree in mathematics from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2001.
2022-4
The Downward Spiral
February 2022
Abstract | Full text
2021-26
Modeling to Inform Economy-Wide Pandemic Policy: Bringing Epidemiologists and Economists Together
November 2021
Abstract | Full text
2021-1
How Important Is Health Inequality for Lifetime Earnings Inequality?
Roozbeh Hosseini, Karen Kopecky, and Kai Zhao
January 2021
Abstract | Full text
2020-15
Four Stylized Facts about COVID-19
Andrew G. Atkeson, Karen Kopecky, and Tao Zha
August 2020
Abstract | Full text
2019-12a
The Evolution of Health over the Life Cycle
Roozbeh Hosseini, Karen A. Kopecky, and Kai Zhao
June 2019 (Revised March 2021)
Abstract | Full text
2017-3c
Old, Frail, and Uninsured: Accounting for Features of the
U.S. Long-term Care Insurance Market
R. Anton Braun, Karen A. Kopecky, and Tatyana Koreshkova
March 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Abstract | Full text (2,606 KB)
2013-2
Old, Sick, Alone, and Poor: A Welfare Analysis of Old-Age Social Insurance Programs
R. Anton Braun, Karen A. Kopecky, and Tatyana Koreshkova
(Revised) February 2015
Abstract | Full text (491 KB)
2011-5
Measuring the Welfare Gain from Personal Computers: A Macroeconomic Approach
Karen A. Kopecky and Jeremy Greenwood
March 2011
Abstract | Full text (275 KB)
2010-19
The Impact of Medical and Nursing Home Expenses and Social Insurance
Karen A. Kopecky and Tatyana Koreshkova
December 2010
Abstract | Full text (513 KB)
Toni Braun and Karen Kopecky. "The Greying of the American Economy 
." ECONversations. 2016 May.
Jeremy Greenwood, Nezih Guner, and Karen Kopecky "Did Substance Abuse during the Pandemic Reduce Labor Force Participation?." Policy Hub (2022-5).
Abstract | Full text
Karen Kopecky and Tao Zha "Impacts of COVID-19: Mitigation Efforts versus Herd Immunity." Policy Hub (2020-3).
Abstract | Full text
Karen Kopecky. "Pay As You Go: Yes or No?," macroblog. June 29, 2016.
R. Anton Braun and Karen Kopecky. "An Eye on the Future: A Discussion about the Long-term Care Insurance Market." Economy Matters podcast. June 22, 2017.
"Old, Frail, and Uninsured: Accounting for Features of the U.S. Long-Term Care Insurance Market." Joint with R. Anton Braun and Tatyana Koreshkova, Econometrica 87 (2019), pp. 981–1019.
"Old, Sick, Alone and Poor: A Welfare Analysis of Old-Age Social Insurance Programs." Joint with R. Anton Braun and Tatyana Koreshkova. Review of Economic Studies 84 (2017), pp. 580–612.
"The Impact of Medical and Nursing Home Expenses on Savings." Joint with Tatyana Koreshkova. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 6 (2014), pp. 29–72.
"Measuring the Welfare Gain from Personal Computers." Joint with Jeremy Greenwood. Economic Inquiry 51 (2013), pp. 336–47.
"The Trend in Retirement." International Economic Review 52 (2011), pp. 287–316.
"Finite State Markov-Chain Approximations to Highly Persistent Processes." Joint with Richard M. H. Suen. Review of Economic Dynamics 13 (2010), pp. 701–14.
"A Quantitative Analysis of Suburbanization and the Diffusion of the Automobile." Joint with Richard M. H. Suen. International Economic Review 51 (2010), pp. 1003–37. 37.
"A Situation in Which a Local Nontoxic Refuge Promotes Pest Resistance to Toxic Crops." Joint with Jemal Mohammed-Awel and John Ringland. Theoretical Population Biology 71 (2007), 131–46.