Isabel M. Perera
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About Isabel
Perera's research focuses on how politics shape the social policies, labor markets, and overall economies of affluent democracies, focusing on the United States and Western Europe. Her book, The Welfare Workforce: Why Mental Health Care Varies Across Affluent Democracies, is available open-access from Cambridge University Press (Studies in Comparative Politics Series).
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Publications
Explores how affluent democracies—the U.S., France, Norway, and Sweden—handled deinstitutionalization, highlighting why some succeeded in building effective mental health services while others fell short.
Revisits classic comparative studies of organized medicine in advanced democracies to highlight two underemphasized findings: physicians' financial preferences can deviate from traditional expectations, and the structure of the organizations that represent doctors can shape whether and how those preferences are expressed.
Draws on an analysis of the French mental health system to challenge four common assumptions in U.S. mental health care: that deinstitutionalization requires eliminating hospitals, that public and private funding are interchangeable, that involuntary commitment should be based on "dangerousness," and that care must constantly expand.
Examines the relationship between community-based and hospital-based psychiatric services, arguing that community and hospital psychiatric services often function as complements.
Examines why Black-White wage parity has been more achievable in American government employment, arguing that African Americans’ strong presence in the public sector, combined with their activism, played a key role in shaping equitable labor policies.