Health Economics Program Director Transition

From: James Poterba <poterba_at_nber.org>
Date: Thu, 7 May 2020 18:14:18 -0400

Dear Health Economics Program Members -

I am very grateful to the many program members who have spoken with me
since Michael Grossman announced earlier this year that he was ready to
pass the baton of program leadership.  I have learned a great deal about
what has contributed to the program's success, about Michael's
extraordinary role in its accomplishments, and about the frontier topics
that program members are currently exploring.  It is an exciting  moment
to be studying health economics, and I expect that the COVID-19 pandemic
will only amplify that excitement.

I am delighted to announce that Kitt Carpenter has agreed to serve as
the next director of the Health Economics Program, effective this
summer.  Kitt holds the E. Bronson Ingram Chair in Economics at
Vanderbilt University.  He is a wide-ranging scholar who has studied
many issues in health economics, including smoking, obesity, vehicle
fatalities, alcohol consumption, and vaccination take-up.  He has been
an NBER affiliate since 2005, and he has been actively involved in
planning a number of recent program meetings.  Kitt is an editor of the
/Journal of Health Economics/, and he chairs the American Economics
Association's Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Individuals in the
Economics Profession.  I look forward to working with him to build on
the Health Economics Program's past successes and to launch new
initiatives.  Please welcome him to this new role.

You may recall that we had planned to thank Michael Grossman for his
forty years (!) of program leadership at the spring program meeting,
which was scheduled for last Friday, but was cancelled on account of the
COVID-19 pandemic.  At the Summer Institute meeting of the Health
Economics Program, which is now scheduled for Monday-Tuesday, July
20-21, Michael will be presenting a paper (1pm on Monday July 20)
entitled "Fifty-Four Years at the NBER and Still Hanging in There."  We
will arrange for a virtual tribute to Mike at that meeting, and I hope
that you will mark your calendars and plan to participate.

All best wishes for staying safe and healthy in this extraordinary time.

Jim Poterba
Received on Thu May 07 2020 - 19:47:16 EDT