The Program at Harvard University takes advantage of the University's large and distinguished faculty and its numerous research centers. Faculty from the Departments of Economics, Government, and Sociology as well as the Schools of Medicine and Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School are involved with the program. 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 Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences (IQSS), which brings together faculty interested in empirical methods in social science research, hosts the offices for the Scholars.  The offices are located at 1730 Cambridge Street, across the street from the Government Department and a 5 minute walk to both the Sociology Department and the Economics Department.  IQSS also is the repository for the Harvard-MIT Data Center, which maintains data from numerous government surveys.

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. Scholars may audit any course offered at Harvard University that they find of interest. The program features special seminars for the Scholars; the seminars feature current research on health policy issues by political scientists, economists, and sociologists, with an emphasis on research in progress. The Harvard program emphasizes methodological excellence and seeks to foster the use of the most rigorous quantitative and qualitative methods; the seminars are one vehicle for introducing Scholars to the variety of such methods. Scholars are strongly encouraged to attend a weekly seminar in the department of their discipline in order to develop more relationships with faculty in their own fields. In addition, numerous weekly and bi-weekly seminars on topics directly related to health policy issues are held at the Kennedy School, the Law School, the Medical School and the School of Public Health. Scholars are encouraged to attend these seminars as well when there is a topic of interest to them.  It is expected that each Scholar will develop and pursue one or more research projects focused on health policy questions.  It is also expected that Scholars will complete at least one research paper on their projects during their time in the program. To facilitate the successful completion of this research, Scholars are given support in the form of research assistants, computers, 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 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

Katherine Baicker, Professor of Health Economics, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) 
Health insurance finance, distributional effects of health insurance finance reform

Amitabh Chandra, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)  
Economics of neonatal health and cardiovascular care, malpractice insurance, unemployed

Michael Chernew, Professor of Health Care Policy and Economics, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School (HMS)
Managed competition, technology adoption, consumer choice

David Cutler, Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics
Productivity of health sector, managed care, disability, health insurance

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

Richard Frank, Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics, Department of Health Care Policy, HMS
Mental health, pharmaceutical industry, organizations, long-term care

John Friedman, Assistant Professor, HKS (and a Cohort 14 Scholar)
Health care and tax policy, education

David Grabowski, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy and Economics, Department of Health Care Policy, HMS
Economics of aging, regulation of long-term care

William Hsiao, Professor of Economics, Department of Health Policy and Management, HSPH
Payment systems, comparative health systems, development and health

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

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

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

David Laibson, Harvard College Professor and Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics
Psychology and economics, experimental economics, finance

Brigitte Madrian, Aetna Professor of Public Policy and Public Management, HKS
Savings behavior, retirement decisions, employer health insurance

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

Joseph Newhouse, John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Care Policy and Management, and Economics, Department of Health Care Policy, HMS, Department of Health Policy and Management, HSPH, and KSG
Risk adjustment, managed care, Medicare, pricing of medical care

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

Benjamin Sommers, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Economics
Uninsured, Medicaid, medical decision making (on leave 2011-12)

Katherine Swartz, Professor of Health Economics and Policy, Department of Health Policy and Management, HSPH
Access to insurance, risk, insurance markets, aging and long-term care issues

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

Political Science

James Alt, Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government
Political economy, fiscal policy and budgets

Stephen Ansolabehere, Professor of Government
Elections, democracy and mass media

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

Daniel Carpenter, Professor of Government (and a Cohort 5 Scholar)
Government regulation, media behavior, methodology (on leave 2011-12)

Claudine Gay, Professor of Government and African American Studies
American political behavior, public opinion, race and ethnic politics

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, HKS
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

Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology
Comparative politics, American politics, comparative and historical sociology, American health policy

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

Lisa Berkman, Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology, Department of Society, Human Development and Health, HSPH, and Director, Center for Population and Development Studies
Social epidemiology, inequality, social support, race and ethnicity

LawrenceD. Bobo, W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences
Race, ethnicity, politics, and social inequality

Nicholas Christakis, MD, Professor of Medical Sociology, Department of Health Care Policy, HMS, and Professor of Sociology
Social networks, terminal and chronic illness, 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

Michele Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies  
Cultural sociology, inequality, race and immigration, comparative sociology

Peter Marsden, Professor of Sociology and Harvard College Professor
Social organizations, social networks, methodology

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

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

Mary Waters, M. E. Zuckerman Professor of Sociology
Social demography, race and ethnic relations, social stratification

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

John Ayanian, MD, Professor of Health Care Policy, Department of Health Care Policy, and Professor of Medicine, HMS
Disparities, cancer, race, gender, physician behavior

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

Evelynn Hammonds, Dean of Harvard College and Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz 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

Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management, HSPH Quality of care, information technology as a tool for reducing medical errors and disparities in care

Nancy L. Keating, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy, Department of Health Care Policy, HMS 
Quality of care, care of patients with cancer

Arthur Kleinman, MD, PhD, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Medical Anthropology, Department of Anthropology and Professor of Medical Anthropology in Social Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Suffering, mental health, comparative health care

Bruce E. Landon, MD, MBA, Professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy, Department of Health Care Policy, HMS 
Physician and health care organizations, quality of care

Mary Beth Landrum, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy, Department of Health Care Policy, HMS 
Statistical methodology for health services research

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

David G. Stevenson, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy, Department of Health Care Policy, HMS
Aging, disability, and long-term care