Harvard University Program

The Program at Harvard University takes advantage of the University's large and distinguished faculty and its numerous research centers. The faculty in the Departments of Economics, Government, and Sociology are among the best in the country, as are those at the Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and the Kennedy School of Government. A substantial number of research ties exist between the social science faculty of the Schools of Medicine and Public Health and the hospitals that comprise the teaching hospitals for the Medical School . As well, Harvard University has a long tradition of interdisciplinary research and training within the social sciences and across issues related to health policy and health care.

The primary university units participating in this Program are the Government, Economics, and Sociology Departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health; the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School; the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences (IQSS, located in Cambridge and hosting offices for the Scholars); and the Harvard-MIT Data Center. Numerous faculty from the foregoing entities, but also from the Kennedy School of Government, and other departments and institutes are involved in the activities of the program and in the mentoring of Scholars.

Each Scholar, in consultation with members of the Executive Committee, will develop an individualized program of study and research. The Harvard program offers substantial flexibility in training and research pursuits, but features a weekly Core Seminar for the Scholars and strong interaction with faculty. The Core Seminar focuses on the disciplines of political science, economics, and sociology with applications to health policy. In this seminar, held alternately on the Cambridge and the Longwood Medical Campus, Scholars and faculty engage in interdisciplinary exchange, showcase new debates, research, and analytical methods, and review research in progress. The Harvard program emphasizes methodological excellence and seeks to foster the use of the most rigorous quantitative and qualitative methods; the Core seminar is one vehicle for introducing Scholars to the variety of such methods. It is expected that each Scholar will develop and pursue one or more research projects, with an emphasis on writing up work for publication. To facilitate the successful completion of this research, Scholars are given support in the form of research assistants, computers, secretarial assistance, access to data, and use of the largest library and related collection of informational resources at any university in the world. Finally, we encourage each Scholar to have frequent, one-on-one interaction with professors familiar with the challenges and opportunities of inter-disciplinary research. Scholars choose advisors and collaborators from the Executive Committee and from a broad list of participating faculty.

The program director at Harvard is Katherine Swartz, PhD, Professor of Health Economics and Policy within the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. Currently, Professor Swartz is also the editor of Inquiry.

The Executive Committee consists of:

• Daniel P. Carpenter, PhD, Professor of Government;
• Michael Chernew, PhD, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School;
• Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, Professor of Medical Sociology at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Sociology;
• Jennifer Hochschild, PhD, Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies;
• Gary King, PhD, David Florence Professor of Government and Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences (IQSS);
• Thomas McGuire, PhD, Professor of Health Care Economics in the Department of Health Care Policy in Harvard Medical School;
• Joseph P. Newhouse, PhD, John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Care Policy and Management, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Kennedy School of Government and FAS;
• Kathy Swartz, PhD, Professor of Health Economics and Policy within the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health; and
• Mary C. Waters, PhD, Professor of Sociology.

The Core Faculty and some of the broader group of faculty on whom the Scholars might draw for mentorship are listed below.

For further information about the Program at Harvard, contact:

Sage Kochavi (617) 495-3644
skochavi@rwj.harvard.edu
RWJF Scholars in Health Policy Program
1730 Cambridge Street; Room S-406
Cambridge, MA 02138
Program website: rwj.harvard.edu

Participating Faculty and Their Health-Related Research Interests

Economics

David Bloom, Professor of Economics and Demography, and Chair of Department of Population and International Health, HSPH
Heath and economic growth, discrimination, AIDS

Michael Chernew, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School;
Managed competition, technology adoption, consumer choice

David Cutler, Professor of Economics and Dean for the Social Sciences
Productivity of health sector, managed care, disability

Erica Field, Assistant Professor of Economics (and a Cohort 10 Scholar)
Health and Development, economic demography

Richard Frank, Professor of Health Economics, HMS
Mental health, pharmaceutical industry, organizations

David Grabowski, Assistant Professor of Health Economics, HMS
Economics of aging, regulation of long-term care

William Hsiao, Professor of Economics
Payment systems, comparative health systems, development and health

Haiden Huskamp, Associate Professor of Health Economics, HMS
Economics of mental health and substance abuse treatment, pharmaceutical industry, end-of-life care financing

Lawrence Katz, Professor of Economics
Labor economics, econometrics, contraception, inequality

Michael Kremer, Professor of Developing Societies
Incentives for R&D on drugs and vaccines and on the interactions between socio/epidemiological modeling of infectious disease

Ellen Meara, Assistant Professor of Health Economics, HMS
Health disparities and socioeconomic status, Medicare, infant health

Thomas McGuire, Professor of Health Economics, HMS
Health care payment systems, mental health, risk adjustment

Joseph Newhouse, Professor of Health Care Policy and Management
Risk adjustment, managed care

Ariel Pakes, Professor of Economics
Industrial organization, econometrics

Meredith Rosenthal, Assistant Professor of Health Economics and Policy, HSPH
Consumer-directed health plans and financial incentives for improving health care quality and patient safety

Katherine Swartz, Professor of Health Policy and Management, HSPH
Access to insurance, risk, costs of health care

Richard Zeckhauser, Professor of Political Economy, KSG
Resource allocation, information limits, health risks


Political Science

Robert Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis, HSPH
Public opinion on health issues, institutional trust

Barry Burden, Associate Professor of Government
American politics, representation, electoral behavior

Daniel Carpenter, Professor of Government (and a Cohort 5 Scholar)
Government regulation, media behavior, methodology

Jorge Dominguez, Professor of International Affairs
International politics

Peter Hall, Professor of Government
Comparative health systems, institutional analysis, methodology

Jennifer Hochschild, Professor of Government
Political philosophy, race and ethnicity, public opinion

Gary King, Professor of Government and Director, IQSS
Comparative health systems, methodology

Jane Mansbridge, Professor of Political Leadership, KSG
Feminism, trust, collective action, social movements

Robert Putnam, Professor of Public Policy
Comparative politics, social capital

Nancy Rosenblum, Professor of Government, and Chair of Department of Government
Political theory, pluralism

Kenneth Shepsle, Professor of Government
Pluralism, Congressional politics, political demography

Dennis Thompson, Professor of Government
Political philosophy, ethics, political theory

Sociology

Lisa Berkman, Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology, and Chair of Department of Society, Human Development and Health, HSPH
Social epidemiology, inequality, social support, race and ethnicity

Nicholas Christakis, Professor of Medical Sociology (HMS) and Professor of Sociology
Terminal and chronic illness, aging, networks, methodology

Mary Jo Good, Professor of Social Medicine, HMS
Comparative health systems, bioethics, gender, globalization

Christopher Jencks, Professor of Social Policy, KSG
Welfare reform, the distribution of material hardship, family structure, and the noneconomic effects of economic inequality

Ron Kessler, Professor of Health Care Policy, HMS
Mental health, health transition, help seeking

Peter Marsden, Professor of Sociology
Social organizations, social networks, methodology

Mary Ruggie, Professor of Public Policy, KSG
Comparative health systems, gender, alternative medicine

Robert Sampson, Professor of the Social Sciences, and Chair of Department of Sociology
Neighborhood effects, collective civic action, network structures of communities

Mary Waters, Professor of Sociology
Social demography, race and ethnic relations, social stratification

Christopher Winship, Professor of Sociology
Family demography, race and ethnicity, education, methodology

Health Sciences and Other Disciplines

John Ayanian, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy, HMS
Disparities, cancer, race, gender, physician behavior

Arnold Epstein, Professor of Health Policy and Management, and Chair of Department of Health Policy and Management, HSPH
Access to care, quality, race, gender

Evelynn Hammonds, Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies
The history of race in U.S. science and medicine; gender and health; history of public health

Arthur Kleinman, Professor of Medical Anthropology and Chair of Department of Anthropology
Suffering, mental health, comparative health care

Barbara McNeil, Professor of Health Care Policy, and Chair of Department of Health Care Policy, HMS
Quality, financial incentives, guidelines

Christopher Murray, Professor of Population Policy and Director of Global Health Initiative at Harvard, HSPH
Population health, cost-effectiveness analysis and the conceptualization, measurement and national application of health systems performance assessment