New Perspectives on Health and Health Care Policy

Featured Speakers

Luncheon Keynote Speaker

James J. Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he has served since 1973.  In 2000, he shared the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with Daniel McFadden. Heckman directs the Economics Research Center and the Center for Social Program Evaluation at the Harris School for Public Policy. In addition, he is the Professor of Science and Society in University College Dublin and a Senior Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation. His work has been devoted to the development of a scientific basis for economic policy evaluation, with special emphasis on models of individuals and disaggregated groups, and to the problems and possibilities created by heterogeneity, diversity, and unobserved counterfactual states. He developed a body of new econometric tools that address these issues. Heckman is actively researching the economics of human development and building theoretical and empirical models of human capacity formation. This work will emphasize the role of the family in producing capacities and the effects of capacities on education, wages, health, crime, and other dimensions of lifetime achievement. He is currently conducting new social experiments on early childhood interventions and reanalyzing old experiments. Heckman has published over 260 articles and several books. Heckman has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gold Medal of the President of the Italian Republic, awarded by the International Scientific Committee of the Pio Manzú Centre in 2008, and the Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy for Children Award from the Society for Research in Child Development in 2009.

Panel Discussion Participants

David Cutler is currently the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University and recently completed a five-year term as associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for Social Sciences. Professor Cutler’s research is in health and public economics. He served on the Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council during the Clinton administration and has advised the presidential campaigns of Bill Bradley, John Kerry and Barack Obama. Among other affiliations, Professor Cutler has held positions with the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences. Currently, Professor Cutler is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the Institute of Medicine. 

Mark Pauly is Bendheim Professor, Professor of Health Care Management, Professor of Business and Public Policy, Professor of Insurance and Risk Management and Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Health Benefits at Work: An Economic and Political Analysis of Employment-Related Health Insurance, Supplying Vaccine: An Economic Analysis of Critical Issues and Financing Long Term Care: What Should Be the Government’s Role? His recent journal publications include "Structural Incentives and Adoption of Medical Technologies in HMO Fee-for-Service Health Insurance"; "The Future U.S. Health Care System: Who Will Care for the Poor and Uninsured?"; and "The Effects of Health Insurance Access to New Medical Technologies." He has consulted for a number of private and public sector organizations, include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and served on the Medicare Technical Advisory Board and on the National Institutes of Health national Advisory Committee. Dr. Pauly received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia, his M.A. in economics from the University of Delaware and his A.B. from Xavier University.