Emma Aguila, PhD

Emma Aguila is an associate professor at the USC Price School of Public of Policy. She was previously a senior economist and director of the RAND Center for Latin American Social Policy. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico in Mexico City. She completed her master’s and PhD in economics at University College London in the United Kingdom. Her research interests include pension reform, saving for retirement, access to social security benefits and healthcare for vulnerable elderly populations, and the interrelation between socioeconomic status and health.

Aguila has received several awards for her work on social security systems in Mexico. Her study on the effects of pension reform (pay-as-you-go versus fully funded systems) on private savings and consumption received the first prize in pensions in 2005 from CONSAR, Mexico. In 2007, her study on social security systems, pension provision and retirement behavior in Mexico received the Inter-American Award for Research in Social Security. In 2008, she received the RAND Gold Merit Award for her contributions to research in economics of aging in Latin America. In 2016, she received the inaugural High Impact Research Award from the USC Price School for her work on retirement account management fees and elderly income security in Mexico.

She has published two monographs examining aspects of income security in retirement, social security, health and migration: United States and Mexico: Ties That Bind, Issues That Divide and Living Longer in Mexico: Income Security and Health. She has also authored several articles in top-ranking scientific journals.

Aguila has significant experience designing and implementing field experiments and longitudinal surveys. She is leading a randomized control trial analyzing the impact of a non-contributory pension program in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. She is advisor of the Mexican Health and Aging Study survey in Mexico and the Social Protection Survey in Latin America.

She has been advisor and participated in research projects at the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Department of Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom, Mexican Ministry of Finance, Mexican National Population Council and Mexican Ministry of Social Development.

Recent Work

Living Arrangements and Supplemental Income Programs for Older Adults in Mexico

Living arrangements often reflect important quality-of-life indicators for elderly adults.

Gender Differences In Cognitive Function Among Older Mexican Immigrants

This paper uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) to study the cognitive function of Mexican-born older adults residing in the United States (Mexican immigrants).

A Bi-National Comparison of Federal Safety Net Programs for Low-Income Elderly in the U.S. and Mexico

Population aging in Mexico as in the United States is expected to accelerate over the next thirty years, and the proportion of individuals 65 and older will triple to approximately 20 percent by 2050 in both nations. Older people of Mexican origin are at high risk of protracted periods of poor health, a reality exacerbated […]

The Effect of Old-Age Pensions on Health Care Utilization Patterns and Insurance Uptake in Mexico

Documenting results from a cluster-randomized controlled trial designed to supplement incomes in poor towns among adults 70 or older.

Do Income Supplemental Programs for Older Adults’ Help Reduce Primary Caregiver Burden? Evidence from Mexico

In countries such as Mexico without formal public long-term care policies, informal care becomes the main source of support for older adults.