Former White House Economist Named to Faculty, August 31, 2007, Harvard Public Health NOW

Katherine Baicker

Katherine Baicker, a former member of the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), has been appointed professor of health economics in the HSPH Department of Health Policy and Management.

Founded in 1946, the CEA works to bring unbiased scientific analysis to bear in the policymaking process, with a staff typically drawn from academia. The three-member council advises the president on economic issues and provides guidance on the development and implementation of domestic and international economic policy issues. Baicker was nominated by President Bush on September 22, 2005, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 4, 2005. She served until July 11, 2007.

While on the CEA, Baicker worked on many aspects of the U.S. economy but focused particularly on the health care system. She was an architect of President Bush's plan, announced in his 2007 State of the Union Address, to broaden health insurance coverage and reduce health care costs in the country. The described approach has been articulated by Baicker as an attempt to make health care more affordable and to "level the playing field" between different types of health insurance plans.

Baicker's portfolio includes issues such as immigration, tax policy, the education and training of American workers, and the diversification of the U.S. energy supply.

"I could not be more pleased that Kate Baicker has joined our faculty," said Arnold Epstein, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management. "Her insights into the interplay of economic forces and health care are invaluable. She is intimate with the policy environment, and I know that she will be a major resource at the School, both for students and faculty, who have overlapping interests."

In 2005, Baicker was appointed as an associate professor in the Department of Public Policy at the School of Public Affairs at UCLA. Before then, she served on the faculty in the Department of Economics at Dartmouth College, the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, and the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. She is also a research associate in the public economics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

In 1998, Baicker earned her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. She was graduated from Yale University in 1993 with a B.A. in economics.

Baicker's research interests include health economics, social insurance and welfare systems, and health insurance financing.