Dear Health Care and Health Economics Program Affiliates -
In early July, Health Care (HC) program co-director Heidi
Williams informed me that in order to devote her attention to a number
of new initiatives related to innovation economics, she needed to
relinquish her role as a co-director of the Health Care Program. She
continues as co-director of the NBER's Innovation Policy Working Group.
I am very grateful for Heidi's leadership of the HC program, and I hope
that you will join me in thanking her for dedicated efforts. Amy
Finkelstein, the HC program's other co-director, will serve as the
program director for this academic year.
This change in program leadership catalyzed a broader discussion
of the structure of health-related research activity at NBER. Amy, Kitt
Carpenter, who directs the Health Economics (HE) Program, and I have
recognized for some time the overlapping research interests of many HC
and HE program affiliates. This overlap seems to have increased in
recent years. In light of this development, we have agreed to combine
the Health Care and Health Economics programs into a new program,
provisionally the Economics of Health Program, with Amy and Kitt as the
co-directors, starting next summer. This combination will allow greater
collaboration and interaction among the remarkable range of scholars who
make up the two current programs. I hope that you share my enthusiasm
for this plan.
For the coming academic year, the HC and HE programs will continue
with their separate activities. HE will hold a program meeting in
December, and HC will meet in February. To promote cross-program ties
before next summer's combination, HC program members will be invited to
the HE program meeting, and vice versa. The first meeting of the
Economics of Health Program will take place at the 2023 Summer
Institute; further details will be forthcoming.
I am very grateful to Amy and Kitt for their continuing program
leadership and for their help in navigating this important
organizational change. All best wishes.
Jim Poterba
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Received on Thu Sep 08 2022 - 17:37:00 EDT
