Heinrich Hock, Ph.D.

Dr. Heinrich Hock is an economist with 19 years of experience conducting research on labor, education, disability employment, and social insurance. His work focuses on producing results that help policymakers and program staff understand outcomes for priority populations and research-based options for improving outcomes. He develops rigorous and feasible plans for research designs, data collection and analysis, and dissemination of findings. Hock has led work on over a dozen labor-related projects for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and other funders to assess the outcomes for groups such as dislocated workers, youth and adult jobseekers with disabilities, and veterans, among other groups. Hock also has played a key role in U.S. Department of Education (ED) studies to identify solutions for improving career outcomes among special education and adult education participants. 

Hock helps advance Abt’s portfolio of evaluation studies to grow the evidence base on effective employment and training programs. He is the co-Principal Investigator of DOL’s Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments Evidence Building project, and co-Principal Investigator of the Fiscal Year 2024 Disability Innovation Fund Program Evidence Building Support project for ED. He also contributes to the DOL-funded Unemployment Insurance (UI) Research and Evaluation Portfolio project and Employment Transition Models Evaluation. Through these and other projects, he is helping federal clients develop, conduct, and support new research studies to improve and innovate on key workforce programs. 

Before joining Abt, Hock led impact evaluations for DOL focusing on a new self-employment training model for laid-off workers and new workforce services for adult and youth jobseekers with disabilities. He also led analysis for DOL to assess expansions to the UI system in the wake of the Great Recession. For ED, he led initial impact analyses for a study of English Learner reclassification policies and co-led the design of a study to identify and test promising strategies to improve the adult outcomes of high school students with disabilities. He also contributed to an evaluation of a framework ED promoted to help adult learners gain skills for personal and workplace success. In addition, Hock led evaluation activities for a Social Security Administration test of new rules about work for disability beneficiaries.

This work was conducted while Hock was at Westat, the American Institutes for Research, and Mathematica Policy Research. He was also previously an assistant professor of economics at Florida State University.  
 

Expertise

• Designing and executing of impact and mixed-method evaluating
• Collecting and analyzing administrative, survey, and interview data
• Identifying, assessing feasibility, and testing new workforce, career development, and educational services and supports
• Building evidence on reemployment programs, training, and unemployment assistance
   

Key Projects

• Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments Evidence Building Portfolio Project
• Unemployment Insurance Research and Evaluation Portfolio
• Employment Transition Models Evaluation
• Fiscal Year 2024 Disability Innovation Fund Program Evidence-Building Support
   

Publications

• Hock, H., Lee Luca, D., Kautz, T., & Stapleton, D. (2023). Improving the outcomes of youth with medical limitations: Evidence from the National Job Corps Study. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 32(3), 636–656.
• Hock, H., Jones, J. T., Levere, M., & Wittenburg, D. (2021). Using behavioral outreach to counteract administrative burden and encourage take-up of simplified disability payment rules. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 4(1), 1–11.
• Klayman, D., Di Biase, C., Searson, A., & Hock, H. (2019). Disability Employment Initiative impact evaluation: Round 1 through round 4 grantees. Submitted to DOL. Gaithersburg, MD: Social Dynamics.
• Hock, H., Anderson, M. A., & Santillano, R. (2018). Supporting self-employment as a reemployment strategy: Impacts of a pilot program for dislocated workers after 18 months. Submitted to DOL. Washington, DC: Mathematica.
• Nicholson, W., Needels, K., & Hock, H. (2014). Unemployment compensation during the Great Recession: Theory and evidence. National Tax Journal, 67(1), 187–218.