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Marcella Alsan

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Marcella Alsan
Alma materHarvard University (BA, MPH, PhD)
Loyola University Chicago (MD)
Known forResearching health inequality
Awards2021, MacArthur Fellowship
Scientific career
InstitutionsHarvard Kennedy School
Thesis Infectious Disease and Development
Doctoral advisorDavid Cutler[1]
Websitehttps://scholar.harvard.edu/alsan

Marcella Alsan is an American physician and economist at Harvard Kennedy School. She is known for her works in the field of health inequality and development economics.[2] She is currently a professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and was previously an associate professor of medicine at Stanford University.[3] She uses randomized evaluations and historical public health natural experiments to study how infectious disease, human capital, and economic outcomes interact.[4] She has studied the effects of the Tuskegee Syphills Experiment on health care utilization and mortality among Black men.[5] Alsan was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2021.[6][7]

Education

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Alsan received a BA in psychology from Harvard University, magna cum laude, a master's in international public health from the Harvard School of Public Health, an MD from Loyola University magna cum laude, and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.[3] Alsan also trained with the Global Health Equity Residency in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Partners with BWH and Massachusetts General Hospital.[3]

Career

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Alsan's article, "Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men", with Marianne Wanamaker, found that life expectancy for black men at age 45 fell by 1.5 years following the disclosure of the Tuskegee study in 1972. It accounts for approximately 35% of the variance in the 1980 gap in the life expectancies between black and white men.[8] Her work on the effects of physician workforce diversity in Oakland found that African-American subjects are much more likely to select every preventative health service when meeting a racially concordant doctor.[9] Alsan's research on the effects of the tsetse fly on African development showed that ethnic groups living in areas with the TseTse are still affected economically due to its effects on precolonial political centralization.[10] She also has significant publications in the areas of antimicrobial resistance and out of pocket health expenditures, infant mortality, and population health and foreign direct investment.[11][12]

Alsan is the co-director of the Health Care Delivery Initiative of J-PAL North America. In her role, she has studied through evaluations the impact of messaging and incentives to increase survey response rates to identify barriers to COVID-19 testing in the US, with Banerjee and Duflo.[13] She has also studied the effects of diversity in COVID-19 communications on health outcomes, and the effects on messages on COVID-19 prevention on preventative behaviours in India.[4] Alsan has conducted additional research on COVID-19 behaviours and knowledge related disparities.[14]

Alsan is on the Social Science advisory board for Science, is an editor for the Journal of Health Economics, and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.[15][16] Alsan was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2021.[6]

References

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  1. ^ Yan, Eric (September 29, 2021). "Harvard Kennedy School Professor Marcella Alsan Wins MacArthur Grant | News | The Harvard Crimson". The Crimson. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  2. ^ "Marcella Alsan". Innovations for Poverty Action. 2016-04-05. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  3. ^ a b c "Marcella Alsan". www.hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  4. ^ a b "Marcella Alsan". Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Marcella Alsan explains how the Tuskegee Study generated mistrust and thus lowered demand for medical services among black men leading to negative health outcomes". NBER. 15 July 2019. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  6. ^ a b "MacArthur Foundation Announces 2021 'Genius' Grant Winners". The New York Times. September 28, 2021. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
  7. ^ Limbong, Andrew (2021-09-28). "This Year's MacArthur 'Genius Grants' Were Just Announced—Here's The Full Winner List". NPR. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  8. ^ Alsan, Marcella; Wanamaker, Marianne (2018-02-01). "Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men*". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 133 (1): 407–455. doi:10.1093/qje/qjx029. ISSN 0033-5533. PMC 6258045. PMID 30505005.
  9. ^ Alsan, Marcella; Garrick, Owen; Graziani, Grant (December 2019). "Does Diversity Matter for Health? Experimental Evidence from Oakland". American Economic Review. 109 (12): 4071–4111. doi:10.1257/aer.20181446. ISSN 0002-8282.
  10. ^ Alsan, Marcella (January 2015). "The Effect of the TseTse Fly on African Development". American Economic Review. 105 (1): 382–410. doi:10.1257/aer.20130604. ISSN 0002-8282.
  11. ^ Alsan, Marcella; Bloom, David E.; Canning, David (2006-04-01). "The effect of population health on foreign direct investment inflows to low- and middle-income countries". World Development. 34 (4): 613–630. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.09.006. ISSN 0305-750X. PMC 7116922. PMID 32287931.
  12. ^ Alsan, Marcella; Schoemaker, Lena; Eggleston, Karen; Kammili, Nagamani; Kolli, Prasanthi; Bhattacharya, Jay (2015-10-01). "Out-of-pocket health expenditures and antimicrobial resistance in low-income and middle-income countries: an economic analysis". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 15 (10): 1203–1210. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(15)00149-8. ISSN 1473-3099. PMC 4609169. PMID 26164481.
  13. ^ "The Impact of Messaging and Incentives on Survey Response Rates to Understand Barriers COVID-19 Testing in the United States". Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  14. ^ Alsan, Marcella; Stantcheva, Stefanie; Yang, David; Cutler, David (2020-06-18). "Disparities in Coronavirus 2019 Reported Incidence, Knowledge, and Behavior Among US Adults". JAMA Network Open. 3 (6): e2012403. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.12403. ISSN 2574-3805. PMC 7303811. PMID 32556260.
  15. ^ "Marcella Alsan". NBER. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
  16. ^ "M. Alsan". www.journals.elsevier.com. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
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