University of Michigan Program

The Program at The University of Michigan draws upon the University's eminent faculty and unique research centers. The University has outstanding Schools of Public Health, Medicine, and Public Policy, some of the strongest social science departments in the world, and a long tradition of interdisciplinary research and training in the social, economic, and political aspects of health. The Institute for Social Research provides major research opportunities for the Scholars through national, longitudinal surveys such as the Health and Retirement Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the American Changing Lives' Study.

The primary University units participating in this Program are: the Department of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health; the Economics, Political Science, and Sociology Departments in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; the Institute for Social Research; and the School of Medicine.

Edward C. Norton, PhD, Professor of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health and Professor of Economics, serves as Program Director.  Dr. Norton also has an appointment at the Institute for Social Research and at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is assisted by two Associate Directors:

  • Richard Hall, PhD, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy; and
  • Shoou-Yih Daniel Lee, PhD, Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy.

The Steering Committee (Norton, Hall, and Lee) provides overall guidance to the program, with responsibilities that include the design of the immersion seminars, inviting speakers for the regular seminar series, and Scholar mentoring. The Program Faculty Committee is composed of seven members who are responsible for selecting and recruiting new cohorts, as well as providing guidance on the overall program. In addition to Edward Norton, Rick Hall, and Daniel Lee, the other members of the Program Faculty Committee include sociologist Jennifer Barber, political scientist Vince Hutchings, economist Helen Levy, and economist Dan Silverman.  Additional support comes from faculty who teach in the immersion seminar.  Physician Tim Hofer and economist and lawyer Jill Horwitz will join Helen Levy, Rick Hall, Daniel Lee, and Edward Norton in leading the immersion seminars.

The Program features an intensive six-week seminar about the U.S. health care system, public health policy, and an introduction to cutting-edge research in economics, political science, and sociology regarding health and health care. The Program also offers a topical, multidisciplinary seminar in which faculty from across the University and visiting faculty present their research. This seminar is designed to provide broad exposure to health policy research and to show how different disciplines approach the same topic. In addition to the seminars designed specifically for the Program, Scholars regularly attend the seminar series for their home discipline department and other seminars and lectures throughout the University.

As an integral part of the Program, each Scholar develops and pursues an individualized program of health policy research. Scholars develop research projects in consultation with members of the Steering Committee and other mentors. These projects enable Scholars to expand their horizons and to take risks. To facilitate the successful completion of his or her research agenda, each Scholar is given support in the form of a private office, research budget, graduate student research assistants, computing resources, secretarial assistance, and access to the extensive libraries and informational resources at the University of Michigan.

For further information about the Program at the University of Michigan, contact:

Edward C. Norton, PhD, (734) 615-5738, ecnorton@umich.edu
Department of Health Management and Policy
1415 Washington Heights
School of Public Health
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor MI 48109-2029
Program site: http://www.sph.umich.edu/rwj

Selected Faculty and Their Areas of Health-Related Research Interests

Economics

Martha Bailey, Assistant Professor of Economics (and Cohort 12 Scholar)
Economic history, economic development, labor economics

John Bound, Professor of Economics; Research Professor, Population Studies Center; Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center
Demography, teen pregnancy, poverty and health

Charles Brown, Professor of Economics; Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Health and retirement

Thomas Buchmueller, Waldo O. Hildebrand Professor of Risk Management and Insurance and Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy
Economics of health insurance and public policy

Paul Courant, Professor of Economics and Public Policy
Benefit cost analysis, budget and tax policy

Sheldon Danziger, Professor, School of Social Work and Public Policy
Mental health and poverty

John DiNardo, Professor of Economics and Public Policy
Economics of labor unions, income inequality, applied econometrics, economics of health

Daniel Eisenberg, Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy
Health policy, behavioral health (mental health and substance use)

Richard Hirth, Professor of Health Management and Policy
Health care market behavior

Helen Levy, Assistant Research Scientist of Health Management and Policy, and the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research (and Cohort 5 Scholar)
Health insurance, health economics

Zoë McLaren, Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy
Health economics; labor economics; development economics

Catherine McLaughlin, Professor of Health Management and Policy
Medically uninsured, market competition, consumer choice

Edward Norton, Professor of Health Management and Policy
Economics of long-term care and aging

Robert Schoeni, Professor, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Labor economics, the family, aging, and welfare policy

Dan Silverman, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics
Public and labor economics

Carl Simon, Professor of Mathematics, Economics, and Public Policy
Simulation and complex system models

Dean Smith, Senior Associate Dean, School of Public Health and Professor of Health Management and Policy
Health insurance, PPOs, pharmacoeconomics

Jeff Smith, Professor of Economics
Labor economics, applied econometrics

Kevin Stange, Assistant Professor of Public Policy (and a Cohort 15 Scholar)
Empirical labor and public economics with a focus on higher education and health care

Kenneth Warner, Dean, School of Public Health and Professor of Health Management and Policy
Economics of tobacco policy

David Weir, Research Professor
Economics and demography of aging

Jack Wheeler, Professor of Health Management and Policy
Health care finance

Robert Willis, Professor of Economics; Research Professor, Institute for Social Research; Director, Health and Retirement Study
Economic demography, health and retirement

Political Science

Mary Corcoran, Professor of Political Science; Professor, School of Social Work; Professor, Women's Studies Program
Domestic violence, mental health, welfare-to-work

Elizabeth Gerber, Professor Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Policy consequences of electoral laws and other political institutions

Scott Greer, Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy
Comparative health care systems; Federalism

Richard Hall, Professor of Political Science and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Politics of health care policy in Congress

Donald Herzog, Professor of Political Science; Professor of Law
Ethical issues in health care policy

Vincent Hutchings, Associate Professor of Political Science; Research Associate, Center for Political Studies (and Cohort 7 Scholar)
Race, ethnicity and politics

Kenneth Kollman, Professor of Political Science
American government and politics, formal political theory

Ann Lin, Associate Professor, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Public policy implementation, political socialization, political identity

Robert Mickey, Assistant Professor of Political Science (and a Cohort  13 Scholar)
America's political development, racial politics, and policy responses to durable inequalities, especially in the field of health care

Barry Rabe, Professor, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Environmental policy

Charles Shipan, Professor of Political Science (and a Cohort 3 Scholar)
American politics and institutions

Sociology

Jeffrey Alexander, Richard Jelinik Professor of Health Management and Policy; Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Organizational change in health care, multi-institutional systems

Barbara A. Anderson, Professor of Sociology; Research Scientist, Population Studies Center
Mortality and aging

Renee Anspach, Associate Professor of Sociology
Health organizations and professions, medical sociology, bioethics

Jennifer Barber, Professor of Sociology
Families, childbearing, intergenerational relationships

Jane Banaszak-Holl, Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy
Organizational change in health care, interorganizational networks, institutions for chronic and long-term care

Sarah Burgard, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Health disparities; work and health; social demography

James House, Professor of Sociology and Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Social epidemiology, aging, socioeconomic status and health

Daniel Lee, Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy
Health care organizations; health care utilization; workforce; social capital; health literacy

Jersey Liang, Professor of Health Management and Policy; Research Professor, Institute of Gerontology
Gerontology, comparative aging and health

Mark Mizruchi, Professor of Sociology and Business Administration; Research Associate, Center for Research on Social Organizations
Organization theory and social network analysis

Jeffrey Morenoff, Associate Professor of Sociology and Research Associate Professor, Population Studies Center and the Survey Research Center
Crime, health, urban neighborhoods, and the analysis of spatial data

Amy Schulz, Associate Research Scientist in Health Behavior/Health Education (and Cohort 2 Scholar)
Community-based participatory research; ethnicity, culture and health

Pamela Smock, Associate Professor of Sociology
Family, gender and social inequality; economic consequences of divorce; cohabitation

Yu Xie, Otis Dudley Duncan Distinguished University Professor of Sociology, Professor of Statistics, Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research
Social stratification, demography, statistical methods, and the sociology of science.

Health Sciences

Gary Freed, Professor and Chair of Division of General Pediatrics
Child health services research; immunization policy

Rodney Hayward, Professor of Internal Medicine and Health Management and Policy
Medical outcomes, technology, physician practice patterns

Timothy Hofer, Professor of Internal Medicine
Internal medicine, quality of care

Jill Horwitz, Professor of Business and Law
Health law and policy, nonprofit law and policy, torts, and empirical law and economics

Joel Howell, Professor of Internal Medicine and History; Director, Robert Wood Johnson
Clinical Scholars Program
History of medicine, medical technology

Peter Jacobson, Professor of Health Management and Policy
Health care law, role of courts in public health policy, tobacco control

A. Mark Fendrick, Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy and Internal Medicine
Medical innovation, health care costs, access to new medical technology