Dora L. Costa

Dora L. Costa (born 1964) is an American economist. Costa taught at MIT from 1993 to 2007, and is now a Professor of Economics at UCLA. She teaches economic history. Costa is also the Chairman of Economics Department at UCLA. Costa is a research for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER, working in programs focused on the Development of the American Economy. Costa is noted for her studies of social class and health inequality and for her work on social capital.[1]

In 1986, Costa earned her B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1993, she earned her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. She is a married to her collaborator Matthew E. Kahn, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. She has authored papers with her former professor Robert Fogel on "technophysio evolution". She is also author of the books "The Evolution of Retirement: An American Economic History 1880-1990″ and “Cowards and Heroes: The Social Face of War”.