Alejandra Ros Pilarz

Alejandra Ros Pilarz’s research agenda aims to improve the wellbeing of working families with low-incomes through policy-relevant research. Her research examines the effects of parental employment and children’s early care and education (ECE) contexts on family wellbeing and children’s development. She also examines how child and family policies—including ECE policies, work-family policies, and income support policies—shape parents’ employment, children’s ECE contexts, and ultimately, influence child and family wellbeing. Dr. Pilarz uses a range of quantitative methods and primarily relies on large-scale, longitudinal administrative and survey data; she is also experienced in mixed methods research and primary data collection.

Dr. Pilarz’s current research projects focus on examining: (1) changing trends in mothers’ work hours and schedules and their effects on children’s ECE arrangements, mothers’ time with their children, and child health and development; (2) the effects of public policies, including pregnancy accommodation laws, on women’s employment during the period surrounding a birth and on maternal and infant health; (3) declines in regulated child care supply and child care subsidy use in Wisconsin; and (4) the effects of COVID-19 relief funding on the child care workforce in Wisconsin. Her research has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families; the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families; the Russell Sage Foundation; and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.