The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Institute on Healthcare Systems

US and Massachusetts Social and Health Policy Datasets 

To download the datasets, please submit the Download Request Form. If you have questions, please email knicholson@brandeis.edu. 

Overview: This site presents a collection of resources designed to provide information about policies and empirical indicators across four domains: Public Health, Healthcare Delivery, Social Welfare and Economics. The focus is 2019-2025, a period of pronounced, rapid policy changes. The goal of offering these resources is to facilitate social science researchers’ ability to examine and gain insights from this critical period. One resource is focused on policies and empirical data at the state level (covering the 50 US states and the District of Columbia). Additionally, we generated a more localized dataset that presents analogous county-level information for Massachusetts. In total, the collection includes:
  • The US Social and Health Policy Dataset
  • The Massachusetts Social and Health Policy Dataset
  • Data dictionaries and other technical documentation for both datasets.
  • Academic posters summarizing specific aspects of the data authored by Brandeis student researchers.

Suggested citations for the datasets:


Documentation and sources: Out technical documentation (available through the Download Request Form) details the specific source(s) and approach(es) for each policy and empirical indicator that we included. In addition, you can find the full list of citations for our sources and methods here (we note that some sources have since been removed from government websites; please contact our team if you need access to any such underlying source):

Student contributions and research products: Brandeis student researchers who supported the development of these datasets have also created scientific posters (available through the Download Request Form) summarizing their findings from examining specific data elements.

Suggested citations for the student research:

  • Allen, O., Nicholson, K., Sonik, R., “Statewide Variation in Medicaid Unwinding during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Brandeis University, 2026.
  • Stanchev, M., Nicholson, K., Sonik, R., “Statewide Variation in Universal School Lunch Programs.” Brandeis University, 2026. 

About the U.S. Social and Health Policy Dataset:

To download the datasets, please submit the Download Request Form. If you have questions about this dataset, please email knicholson@brandeis.edu

Last Updated: February 2, 2026
Date Created: December 1, 2024
File Type: .csv
File size: 4.9 MB
Suggested Citation:
Nicholson K, Stantchev M, Allen J, Bien-Aime D, Duncan S, Reddy A, Sonik RA. (2026) U.S. Social and Health Policy Dataset. Heller School of Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University https://heller.brandeis.edu/ihs/research/index.html
Geographic Coverage: 50 US States and the District of Columbia (DC). No US Territories.
Time period: January 2019-December 2025
Language: English
What’s in this Dataset?
Rows: 4,285. In addition to a column headers row, each row is a: State-Month (i.e., for each state and DC, there is a row for each of the 84 months from January 2019 to December 2025).
Columns: 331. State-month, and then 330 variables representing policy choice indicators or empirical data. Each variable is labeled as belonging primarily to one of four primary domains:

Domains Examples of Variables
Economic Conditions (21 variables) Employment: unemployment rate, labor force participation rate, unemployment benefits, paycheck protection program loans, emergency paid sick leave, emergency family/medical leave
Debt relief: pause on student loan repayment, credit bureau reporting bans
(mortgages and generally)
Healthcare Delivery (29 variables) Health Insurance: changes to Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP),
Medicaid, Medicare
Services available: expansion of telehealth, waivers on rules limiting services
that nurse practitioners could provide
Public Health (224 variables) COVID-19 outcomes and responses: admissions, stay-at-home and shut down
orders, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, additional worker protections and
safety rules for workplaces
Capacity: proportion of inpatient hospital beds and intensive care unit beds
occupied, hospital staffing shortages
Social Welfare (56 variables) Housing: eviction moratoria, emergency rental assistance, utility shutoff
protection, utility grace periods, utility reconnections
Food: child nutrition program (CNP), SNAP emergency allotments (EAs), Pandemic Electronic Transfer (P-EBT), SNAP administrative changes, universal
school lunch programs, Women, Infant and Children nutrition program (WIC)
policies
Cash support: child tax credits, social security cost-of-living increases, economic impact payments

Dataset Changelog: No changes have been archived.
Public Access Level: Public
Access Level Comment:  To download please submit the Download Request Form.
If you have questions about this dataset, please email knicholson@brandeis.edu.

About the Massachusetts Social and Health Policy Dataset:

To download the datasets, please submit the Download Request Form. If you have questions about this dataset, please email knicholson@brandeis.edu

Last Updated: February 28, 2026
Date Created: December 1, 2025
File Type: .csv
File size: 176.5 KB
Suggested Citation:
Nicholson K, Bien-Aime D, Stantchev M, Allen J, Reddy A, Sonik RA. (2026) Massachusetts Social and Health Policy Dataset. Heller School of Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, https://heller.brandeis.edu/ihs/research/index.html
Geographic Coverage: 14 Counties, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Time period: January 2019-December 2025 
Language: English
What’s in this Dataset?
Rows: 1,177. In addition to a column headers row, each row is a: County-Month (i.e., for each county, there is a row for each of the 84 months from January 2019 to December 2025)
Columns: 49. County-month, and then 48 variables representing policy choice indicators or empirical data. Each variable is labeled as belonging primarily to one of four primary domains:

 Domains  Sample of Subtopics
Economic Conditions (6 variables) Employment: labor force, employment/unemployment rates, minimum wage
Healthcare Delivery (13 variables)

Health Insurance: coverage rates for Medicaid/CHIP

Services available: limitations on non-essential care, expansion of telehealth coverage, relaxation of staffing ratio requirements
Public Health (18 variables) COVID-19 outcomes and responses: mask mandates, orders related
to public gatherings, in-person K-12, and business operations
Health measures: survey data on health status, life expectancy
Social Welfare (11 variables) Housing: housing burden, eviction moratoria, eviction cases filed, rental assistance, utility assistance


Food: food insecurity, average meal costs, food budget shortfalls

Dataset Changelog: No changes have been archived.
Public Access Level: Public
Access Level Comment:  To download, please submit the Downloads Request Form.
If you have questions about this dataset, please email knicholson@brandeis.edu

Downloads Available

Datasets
  • US Social and Health Policy Dataset .csv 4.9 MB
  • Massachusetts Social and Health Policy Dataset .csv 176.5 KB
Technical Documentation:
  • US Social and Health Policy Dataset Data Dictionary .xlsx 61.9 KB
  • Technical notes for the US and Massachusetts Social and Health Policy Datasets.pdf 142.5 KB
  • Technical notes on variables related to the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program in the US Social and Health Policy Dataset .pdf 166.8 KB
  • Massachusetts Social and Health Policy Dataset Data Dictionary .xlsx 22.4 KB
Posters
  • Allen poster.pdf 483.3 KB
  • Stanchev poster.pdf 1.5 MB

To download the datasets, please submit the Download Request Form.