Our Team

Keren Horn

Keren Mertens Horn is an Assistant Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts Boston. Horn’s research seeks to inform policies that will help cities become places of opportunity for people at both ends of the socio-economic spectrum.  Her primary interest is developing a deeper understanding of the forces within our nation that support both racial and economic integration, with a particular focus on increasing access to opportunity for low income children.  She seeks to learn what motivates households with resources to live in lower income neighborhoods. 

She studies whether housing policies, particularly through the provision of support for low-income households, can break patterns of economic and racial segregation and lead to increased opportunities for low income children.  She also examines whether schools play a role in these patterns; Do schools and school reforms shape housing markets and household residential choices? 

Professor Horn received her PhD in Policy from New York University, with a focus on Urban Economics.  Her work has been published in Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Housing Economics, Urban Studies and Housing Policy Debate.  Professor Horn teaches courses in microeconomics, urban economics and the economics of poverty and inequality.