Eileen is co-director of CEPR and fellow at Rutgers University Center for Women and Work. She has held visiting positions at the Wissenschaftszentrum (Berlin), University of Manchester and Leicester University (UK), University of South Australia, and University of Auckland (New Zealand). Prior to joining CEPR, she held positions as distinguished professor and director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University and as professor of economics at Temple University. She holds a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Since 2010, Eileen’s research has focused on financialization of the economy and the role of private equity in financial engineering and restructuring of companies for financial gain. Her recent work has examined the financialization of health care. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, chapters in books, working papers, and pieces in an array of outlets, including The Hill and The American Prospect.
Her book, Private Equity at Work: When Wall Street Manages Main Street, coauthored with Rosemary Batt, was selected by the Academy of Management as one of the four best books of 2014 and 2015 and was a finalist for the 2016 George R. Terry award. This book was the first to provide a balanced examination of private equity’s effects on the companies they acquire and the workers in those companies. It has had an important and widely acknowledged impact on research and policy on private equity.
Prior to 2010, Eileen’s research focused on organizational restructuring and outcomes for firms and workers regarding low-wage jobs, new technology and work organization, and work-family policy. She has published peer-reviewed articles in a range of journals, including Review of Radical Political Economics, British Journal of Industrial Relations, JAMA Health Forum, and Advances in Health Care Management. Her book, Unfinished Business: Paid Family Leave in California and the Future of U.S. Work-Family Policy, coauthored with Ruth Milkman, examines the effects of paid family leave in California on employers and employees. It has been widely cited in discussions of national paid family and medical leave policy.
Several of her earlier books — The New American Workplace: Transforming Work Systems in the United States with Rosemary Batt, Low Wage America: How Employers Are Reshaping Opportunity in the Workplace with Annette Bernhardt and Richard Murnane, and Manufacturing Advantage: Why High Performance Work Systems Pay Off with Peter Berg, Thomas Bailey and Arne Kalleberg — were selected by Princeton University for its distinguished list of Noteworthy Books in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics.
All from Eileen Appelbaum
Pocketing Money Meant for Kids: Private Equity in Autism Services
One of the most successful social movements of the twenty-first century occurred when thousands of parents and advocates won healthcare rights and insurance coverage for individuals with autism.
Envision on the Rocks
Envision Healthcare – the private equity-owned physician staffing firm whose clinicians can be found staffing 540 health care facilities in 45 states – is in serious financial trouble.
Preying on the Dying: Private Equity Gets Rich in Hospice Care
The goal of hospice services is to enable terminally ill patients to remain in their homes and engage in their normal activities to the fullest extent possible
Statement on President Biden’s Paid Leave Proposal in His 2024 Budget
In the strongest commitment to paid family and medical in history, President Biden’s budget calls for $325 billion to fund a permanent paid family and medical leave program.
The New Hospital at Home Movement: Opportunity or Threat for Patient Care?
In December 2022, Congress approved the extension of the CMS waiver program through December 2024, despite the fact that public health crisis conditions have waned
Albertsons and Kroger Merger a Win for Private Equity and Loss for Workers
Regulators must halt payment of this special dividend both because its payment will unfairly enrich its former PE owners and because payment of the dividend will set Albertsons up for failure and increase the probability that the merger with Kroger will b
CEPR Statement: Inflation Reduction Act is Historic Progress
The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will be signed today by President Biden. The act will reduce the costs of health care, prescription drugs, and home energy bills while making real progress on climate change, creating millions of good jobs
How Public Real Estate Investment Trusts Extract Wealth from Nursing Homes and Hospitals
Evidence shows that REITs are financial actors that aggressively buy up property assets and manage them to extract wealth at taxpayers’ expense.
Private Equity Funds’ Claims of Strong Performance Are Based on a Mirage
Investors should not be fooled by the myth that private equity investments provided outsized returns over the last 13 years.
Trends in Real Estate Investment Trust Ownership of US Health Care Properties
Policy makers and health care operators should ensure that the REIT business model is compatible with long-term priorities in health care delivery.