Alex Schulte

Health Policy PhD candidate (Organizations & Management track) at the University of California, Berkeley

Alex is a Health Policy PhD candidate and Computational Social Science Fellow, graduating in May 2026. She uses an applied econometric toolkit to analyze how organizational and state policy changes impact provider behavior, access to care, and downstream patient health outcomes, with a focus on maternal and child health and substance use policies.

Alex's dissertation focuses on U.S. Catholic hospitals, with chapters hospital operations, postpartum contraception, and physician behavior. Her dissertation committee members are Dr. Amanda Brewster, Dr. Becky Staiger, Dr. Lori Freedman, and Dr. Hector Rodriguez.

Alex is currently on the academic job market. Her CV can be found here.

Job market paper

"The Effects of Restricted Access to Postpartum Contraception on Reproductive Health: Evidence from Hospitals with Religious Directives" (under review)

Abstract: As demand for postpartum contraception increases, more hospitals are adopting religious restrictions prohibiting these services. We use quasi-random variation in geographic proximity to hospitals adhering to Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs) to evaluate access to contraception among over 9 million birth hospitalizations (2010-2023). Giving birth at an ERD-adherent hospital reduces postpartum contraception provision by 70%, with effects largest among rural patients. We subsequently document a 29% increase in short-interval pregnancies among rural patients. These findings suggest that institutional constraints lead to reduced access and adverse health effects, informing policy debates on hospital transparency and merger oversight.

Recent publications

Alex Schulte, Becky Staiger, Hector Rodriguez, Amanda Brewster. “Mission vs. Margin: The Effects of Catholic Health System Ownership on Hospital Operations.” Medical Care Research and Review. July 2025.

Sarah CM Roberts, Alex Schulte, Sarah Raifman, Guodong Liu, Claudia Zaugg, Meena Subbaraman. "Mandatory warning signs for alcohol use during pregnancy and birth and infant outcomes in southern United States: a quasi-experimental study." Alcohol and Alcoholism. Nov 2025.

Alex Schulte, Ariana Bennett, Jennet Arcara, et al. “Experiencing a challenge or delay accessing contraception and contraceptive self-efficacy: Data from a 2022 nationally representative online survey.” Reproductive Health. May 2025.

Funding

Alex's research has been supported by a variety of sources, including:

Research interests

Health policy
Organizations and management
Causal inference
Reproductive, maternal, and child health

Background and experience

Before starting her PhD, Alex spent over four years at Deloitte Consulting, where she worked with a variety of healthcare and philanthropic clients on strategy and operations. Her work spanned a wide range of initiatives, including developing and implementing a population health operating model for a vertically integrated health system, leading COVID-19 scenario planning for the largest U.S. foundation, and developing behavioral economics–informed nudges for physicians. Alex also played a key role in launching the Deloitte Health Equity Institute and later served as a program officer, where she managed grant making and provided technical assistance to nonprofit organizations working to improve maternal health equity.

Alex graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Bachelors degrees in Economics and Health Policy & Management. During her time at UNC, she worked as a research assistant at the NC Rural Health Research Program under the mentorship of Drs. George Pink and Mark Holmes. Alex was born and raised in rural Kentucky.

Outside of work, Alex volunteers as a Spiritual Care Counselor with the All-Options Faith Aloud program, where she offers compassionate nonjudgmental support to individuals facing complex decisions around pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption.

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