Yonatan Ben-Shalom

Yonatan Ben-Shalom specializes in policies and programs related to the employment and income of people with disabilities, particularly those who acquire disability in adulthood such as workers and veterans. Since joining Mathematica in 2009, Ben-Shalom has worked on a range of projects in disability, labor, and health. Currently, he leads evaluation technical assistance for the Retaining Employment and Talent After Injury/Illness Network (RETAIN), a demonstration that tests promising early interventions for improving the labor force participation and retention of people who recently sustained injuries and disabilities. From 2013 to 2016, he directed the U.S. Department of Labor’s Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work Policy Collaborative, which was instrumental in the development of RETAIN. Ben-Shalom has also served as principal investigator for numerous studies funded under the Social Security Administration’s Disability Research Consortium and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research’s Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers.

Ben-Shalom, a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, has published widely in journals such as Demography, Health Affairs, Health Services Research, and the Social Security Bulletin and coedited special journal volumes for the Journal of Disability Policy Studies and the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. He has also written commissioned book chapters in The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Poverty, SSDI Solutions: Ideas to Strengthen the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, and Investing in America’s Workforce: Improving Outcomes for Workers and Employers. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University.