About

Emma Aguila is a faculty member at USC Price with a focus on public policy, health policy and management, and social innovation. Her work involves research on health policy, social justice, and public management, contributing to the development of policies that address community needs and improve health and social outcomes. She is involved in teaching and mentoring students across various programs, including health administration, public policy, and nonprofit leadership. Her expertise encompasses health policy analysis, social innovation, and public management, with a commitment to advancing knowledge in these areas through research and practical application. Aguila's contributions support the mission of USC Price to prepare students for leadership roles in public service, emphasizing evidence-based policy making and community engagement.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Gerontology
• Political Science
• Social Science
• Demography
• Sociology
• Public relations
• Engineering
• Environmental health
• Psychiatry
• Family medicine
• Psychology
• Clinical psychology

Selected publications

• Social Security and Retirement of Older Blacks and Hispanics

  ICPSR Data Holdings · 2026-05-12

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Little research has examined how income inequalities by race/ethnic origin shape retirement decisions. Using Health and Retirement Study data from 2000-2020 linked to restricted Social Security Administration records, we calculate Social Security wealth accounting for differences in earnings histories, employment gaps, and survival probabilities. We find that Social Security wealth encourages retirement for Blacks and Whites but not for Hispanics. The limited responsiveness of Black and Hispanic individuals to other well-documented retirement determinants may point to labor market barriers and discrimination that diminish differences within groups and highlight the need to conduct analysis separately by race/ethnic origin.

  PublisherDOI

• Bilingualism was not associated with a cognitive advantage among older Mexican adults

  Alzheimer s & Dementia Diagnosis Assessment & Disease Monitoring · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Abstract INTRODUCTION We examined whether bilingualism was associated with a cognitive advantage among older urban‐ or rural‐dwelling Mexican adults. METHODS Participants were from the Mexican Health and Aging Study Ancillary Study on Cognitive Aging (Mex‐Cog) from urban ( N = 1063, 12% Spanish–English bilingual adults) and rural ( N = 814, 19% Spanish–Indigenous bilingual adults) areas. Memory, language, and executive functioning were assessed. Weighted linear models stratified by locality evaluated effects of bilingualism on cognitive domains, adjusting for sociodemographic factors. RESULTS In urban settings, Spanish–English bilingualism was not associated with cognition in any domain (all P s > 0.05). In rural settings, Spanish–Indigenous bilingual adults had lower scores across all domains ( P s < 0.01). DISCUSSION There was no evidence of a cognitive advantage among older bilingual adults in Mexico. Indigenous bilingual adults performed worse cognitively compared to Spanish‐monolingual peers. Further work is needed to understand the linguistic and sociocultural characterization of older Mexican adults to better evaluate bilingualism and cognitive aging.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Special issue: Hispanic/Latinx healthy aging

  The Gerontologist · 2026-03-21

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Financial Protection in Flux: Longitudinal Evidence on Out-of-Pocket Spending Among Middle-Aged and Older Mexicans During the <i>Seguro Popular</i> –INSABI Transition

  Health Policy and Planning · 2026-05-06

  articleOpen access

  Mexico is aging rapidly, placing growing strain on health financing and long-term care systems. Older adults face a double burden: higher healthcare needs due to chronic conditions and multimorbidity, and limited or informal income in later life, leaving them highly exposed to out-of-pocket (OOP) spending. In 2020, the government replaced Seguro Popular (SP) with the Instituto de Salud para el Bienestar (INSABI) to strengthen financial protection, but its implications on older adults remain unclear. We analyzed OOP among 13 616 individuals aged ≥50 years in the Mexican Health and Aging Study, interviewed in 2018 and 2021. Expenditures for hospitalizations, outpatient procedures, medical visits and medications in the previous 12 months were indexed to inflation and converted to 2021 US dollars. Tobit models estimated total and component OOP, including an interaction between insurance category (Uninsured; Social Security - IMSS/ISSSTE/PEMEX/Defense; SP 2018/INSABI 2021; Other) and survey year, adjusting for sociodemographic and health covariates. Between 2018 and 2021 the proportion of older adults reporting no health insurance tripled from 9.5% to 27.2%, while SP affiliation fell from 30.1% to 10.9%. Social Security beneficiaries spent substantially less than the uninsured on total OOP (about US$1 033 less in 2018 and US$539 less in 2021). SP in 2018 and INSABI in 2021 were also associated with lower OOP (-US$291 and -US$298 versus the uninsured, respectively). Only Social Security was associated with a statistically significant reduction in medication-related OOP. Overall, the transition from SP to INSABI coincided with a marked rise in reported uninsurance and persistently high OOP, particularly for medicines, the principal driver of financial burden among older adults. These findings highlight the fragility of recent health financing reforms and the need to ensure sustained, employment-independent financial protection for Mexico's aging population.

  PublisherDOI

• Social Security and Retirement of Older Blacks and Hispanics

  ICPSR Data Holdings · 2026-05-12

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Little research has examined how income inequalities by race/ethnic origin shape retirement decisions. Using Health and Retirement Study data from 2000-2020 linked to restricted Social Security Administration records, we calculate Social Security wealth accounting for differences in earnings histories, employment gaps, and survival probabilities. We find that Social Security wealth encourages retirement for Blacks and Whites but not for Hispanics. The limited responsiveness of Black and Hispanic individuals to other well-documented retirement determinants may point to labor market barriers and discrimination that diminish differences within groups and highlight the need to conduct analysis separately by race/ethnic origin.

  PublisherDOI

• Drought and cognitive function in older adults: results from the Mexican health and aging study

  Environment International · 2026-01-07

  articleOpen access

  Drought represents a climate-related exposure impacting communities across the globe. Drought exposure has been linked with adverse human health, including poorer mental health and nutritional outcomes. It is unknown whether drought exposure relates to cognitive function. We evaluated cognitive function in adults aged 50+ by length of exposure to a major drought occurring between 2010 and 2012 in Mexico. We used individual-level data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (n = 6988), drawing from pre-drought (2003) and post-drought (2012) waves, linked with monthly municipality-level information from the Mexican Drought Monitor on drought exposure produced by the Mexican National Water Commission. We employ multilevel regression models, with inverse probability of attrition weighting, to examine how length of drought exposure is related with post-drought cognition, controlling for pre-drought cognition and nutritional/mental health covariates. Whether quantified as the total number of months of drought exposure or the longest streak of consecutive months of drought exposure, longer drought exposure was negatively related with Verbal Learning and Verbal Recall performance over time but exhibited an inverse U-shaped association with Verbal Fluency. Findings were similar when using various thresholds of drought severity (i.e., severe to exceptional drought). Associations between drought and cognition were not explained by nutrition or mental health covariates. Public health and policy efforts should seek to build community-level resilience and infrastructure to enable effective coping with persistent environmental stressors, especially among older adults, to mitigate effects on health and well-being.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of Non-Contributory Pensions on Older Adult Mortality in Rural Mexico

  The Journal of Human Resources · 2026-01-12

  articleOpen access

  We study an unconditional cash transfer program aimed at alleviating rural poverty among older adults. Using death records and a triple difference design, we find a 5.5% reduction in mortality for women, mostly due to a decrease in non-cardiovascular related mortality, and inconclusive evidence for men. We explore mechanisms using income and expenditure surveys and a triple difference-in-discontinuities design. We find little evidence of significant changes in key hypothesized mechanisms, except for declines in employment and hours worked.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Social Security and Retirement of Older Blacks and Hispanics

  AEA Papers and Proceedings · 2026-05-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Little research has examined how income inequalities by race/ethnic origin shape retirement decisions. Using Health and Retirement Study data from 2000–2020 linked to restricted Social Security Administration records, we calculate Social Security wealth accounting for differences in earnings histories, employment gaps, and survival probabilities. We find that Social Security wealth encourages retirement for Blacks and Whites but not for Hispanics. The limited responsiveness of Black and Hispanic individuals to other well-documented retirement determinants may point to labor market barriers and discrimination that diminish differences within groups and highlight the need to conduct analyses separately by race/ethnic origin.

  PublisherDOI

• Job sector and occupational complexity influence on late-life cognitive function among men

  The Gerontologist · 2025-09-09 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The rapid aging of population in low- and middle-income countries, their economic disadvantages, and the increase in Alzheimer's disease related dementia point to a need to understand cognitive aging of disadvantaged individuals. This research considers the effects of education, occupational complexity, and cognitive engagement on late-life cognitive performance, and how these may vary by economic sector. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We analyze data from the 2012 Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) linked to O*NET (Occupational Information Network) and social security administrative data. We constructed a lifetime occupational complexity index using information on workers' cognitive abilities for males 60 or older with normal cognitive function. RESULTS: We found a higher level of education, degree of occupational complexity, and cognitive engagement for formal-sector workers than for informal-sector ones. For both groups of workers, education, occupational complexity, and cognitive engagement are associated with late-life cognitive health. Yet, occupational complexity was associated with higher late-life cognitive health for informal-sector workers than for formal-sector ones. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: This study, the first to analyze the role of informal-sector work in shaping late-life cognitive health, highlights the relevance of occupation for cognitive health. Our findings are relevant for both developing countries with large shares of workers in the informal sector and developed ones with ethnic minorities and growing proportions of workers in the "gig economy."

  PublisherDOI

• Association of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Access to Deceased Donor Kidney Transplantation Among US Transplant Candidates

  American Journal of Transplantation · 2025-08-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Conference Series on Aging in the Americas: United States and Mexico-Renewal

  NIH · $539k · 2009–2030

• University of Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (ADRD) Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (USC AD/ADRD RCMAR)

  NIH · $15.2M · 2012–2028

Frequent coauthors

• Orazio Attanasio

  28 shared

• Arie Kapteyn

  University of Southern California

  25 shared

• Costas Meghir

  21 shared

• Michael D. Hurd

  16 shared

• Julie Zissimopoulos

  University of Southern California

  15 shared

• Beverly A. Weidmer

  14 shared

• Alfonso Rivera

  14 shared

• Francisco Pérez‐Arce

  13 shared

Education

• Ph.D in Economics, Economics

  University College London

  2006

• MSC in Economics, Economics

  University College London

  2001

• BA in Economics, Economics

  Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México

  2000