Sarah Hamersma
Sarah Hamersma (PhD economics, University of Wisconsin at Madison) is an associate professor of Public Administration and International Affairs in the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, where she is also a senior research associate with the Center for Policy Research. She trains students interested in public service and policy analysis, and her research is focused on examining both intended and unintended consequences of anti-poverty programs.
Bio last updated September 17th, 2021.
Articles by Sarah Hamersma
Countering Counter-Factual COVID Confusion
By Sarah Hamersma
July 10, 2020
We don’t know what we don’t know, and we will never know what we can’t know, but by insisting on properly designed studies we can know if pandemic policies are working, Sarah Hamersma notes.
The study uses data on daily COVID-19 case counts for every county in the United States for most of March and April The study is designed to develop smart counterfactuals, comparing each policy-affected county to multiple alternatives: both similar counties at the same time without that policy and the county itself before it had the policy