By Vincent Lim
After spending the last two years as a postdoctoral scholar at the USC School of Social Work’s Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, Stipica Mudrazija will join the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. as a research associate.
He credits his time at USC with helping him further develop ideas about what kind of research he wanted to pursue in the future and helping him land a position at one of the nation’s most influential think tanks.
“I’m fairly certain that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to join the Urban Institute had I not had the opportunity at the Roybal Institute,” Mudrazija said.
He hopes to bring a unique international perspective to the think tank, which focuses on U.S. domestic policy issues.
“What I hope to bring is the idea that lessons from other countries can be informative for the policy debate and different reform options in the United States,” Mudrazija said.
A Witness to Change
Growing up in the early 1990s during the tumultuous years following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Mudrazija was a witness to the social, political, and economic transition that shaped what the independent nation of Croatia is today.
“For many researchers, it all goes back to your experiences growing up,” he said. “I grew up during the Croatian War of Independence in a newly formed country that was just beginning to build its institutions while simultaneously facing all of the challenges common to former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.”
Croatia was moving from a centrally planned to a free-market economy at the same time it was rebuilding itself following the war and coping with a rapidly aging population. As in many other transitional countries, these changes were fraught with great difficulty.
“When it comes to the role of government, its services and policy making in general, many of us tend to take things for granted, and it’s only when things start going wrong that we fully realize the importance of effective policy making,” Mudrazija said.
His interest in policy would ultimately lead him away from his European homeland and to the United States.
First Time in Washington
Mudrazija first came to the United States to study public policy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he initially focused on the comparative study of pension system reforms.
Reflecting on his experiences as a Croatian citizen and a junior analyst in the research department of the Croatian National Bank, Mudrazija noted that open policy discussions were mostly superficial and, importantly, failed to materialize until the public pension system was in serious financial distress and in need of dramatic changes.
He contrasted this with his experience in the United States.
“The beauty of the American system—while it can be frustratingly inefficient—is that issues get discussed and at great length,” Mudrazija said.
His research continued to evolve at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he pursued a doctorate under the mentorship of Latino aging expert Jacqueline Angel.
Mudrazija noticed that most of the discussions and analyses of different policy options to reform the system of public support for the growing older population—including public pensions and health care—focused on the fiscal impact on the government and the direct effects on beneficiaries of these programs while largely disregarding the role of the family.
“People live in families, and to the extent that family members care for and support each other, there’s likely going to be some sort of adjustment in their support behavior in response to changing public support,” Mudrazija said. “For example, adult children may have to spend more time and money helping their frail older parents if public support becomes inadequate.”
Intergenerational relations and the transfer of financial and nonfinancial support were the focus of his dissertation, and he continued this line of research at USC.
Aging Research Epicenter
“It’s great being in Los Angeles because it’s one of the great centers for aging research and expertise in the nation,” Mudrazija said. “It’s an incredible advantage to be here and
have the opportunity to learn from some of the leading experts in the field.”
USC is home to the Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, whose mission is to advance research whose goal is to enhance optimal aging for persons in minority and low-income communities. It is also home to the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, which is the oldest and largest school of gerontology in the world.
“He has been very productive at the Roybal Institute for the past two years, and we are excited to see that he will continue his research and have the opportunity to inform aging policy in the nation,” said William Vega, the Cleofas and Victor Ramirez Professor of Practice, Policy, Research and Advocacy for the Latino Population, USC provost professor, and executive director of the USC Roybal Institute on Aging.
Mudrazija’s research on intergenerational public and family support in the United States and international context continued to evolve and expand during his time at USC. Some of this research resulted in published articles in the European Journal of Ageing and the Journals of Gerontology.
These opportunities would not have been possible without the help of his mentors.
“I’ve been blessed with excellent mentors in Dr. Jacqueline Angel at The University of Texas at Austin and Dr. William Vega at USC,” Mudrazija said. “At the end of the day, you have to be lucky to have people who can provide guidance and keep your best interests in mind.”
Returning to Washington
His focus at the Urban Institute will be on issues that he has become intimately familiar with over time, such as private pensions and budget issues related to federal entitlement programs.
Founded in 1968, the Urban Institute has a long track record of well-respected research that has informed policy debates, Mudrazija said.
“Major policy think tanks are strongly research-oriented organizations, but they also keep a close eye on the policy agenda inside the Capital Beltway and around the nation,” he said. “Ultimately, they are trying to make their research available at the time when it is most likely to help shape the policy-making process.”
Still, he knows that political change in the United States can move at a glacial pace, which is not necessarily an undesirable characteristic of the system.
“This is not a process where you have to or even want to reinvent the wheel every time you approach reforms,” Mudrazija said. “If we look to history for lessons, the impact of incremental changes is generally more lasting in the long run than the impact of sudden and dramatic changes.”