Davis Center, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Plamen Nikolov is a second year PhD student focusing on Health and Development Economics and a graduate associate of the Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. His interests are in the use of incentives, particularly the design of incentive mechanisms to encourage the development of vaccines for use in developing countries, and the use of randomized trials and quasi-experimental methods to evaluate interventions in the social sciences. Plamen is interested in using economic analysis to influence health policy in developing countries towards programs that actually make a difference. Plamen obtained an MA in international economics and international Development, under Francis Fukuyama, at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, where he focused on the political economy of institutions and its impact on economic growth and development.

Harvard University

David Canning is a Professor of Economics and International Health at Harvard University. He is currently the deputy director of Harvard's Program on the Global Demography of Aging. His research focuses on the role of demographic change and health improvements in economic development. The research on demographic change focuses on the effect of changes in age structure on aggregate economic activity, and the effect of changes in longevity on economic behavior. In terms of health the research focuses on health as a form of human capital and its affect on worker productivity. Before taking up his position at the Harvard School of Public Health, Professor Canning held faculty positions at the London School of Economics, Cambridge University, Columbia University, and Queen's University Belfast. Professor Canning has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. In addition, he was a member of Working Group One of the World Health Organization’s Commission on Macroeconomics and Health.

Harvard Business School

Eric Werker is an Assistant Professor in the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School. His research explores the complex relationship between developed and developing economies. Professor Werker has written on foreign aid, foreign investment, non-governmental organizations, outside financing of insurgency, AIDS, and refugees. His work has been featured in the Financial Times, Washington Post, BBC, NPR, and publications across the developing world. Before joining Harvard Business School, Werker worked as an economist with the US Government's Millennium Challenge Corporation, analyzing foreign aid projects in Africa, Latin America, and Eurasia. He earned his Ph.D. and AB in economics from Harvard University. In his spare time, he enjoys skiing, climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, and travel.

Brown University

David Weil is a Professor of Economics at Brown University. He has written widely on various aspects of economic growth, including the empirical determinants of income differences among countries, the accumulation of physical capital, international technology transfer, and population growth. He has also written on assorted topics in demographic economics including population aging, Social Security, the gender wage gap, retirement, and the relation between demographics and house prices. His current work examines how differences in health contribute to income gaps among countries. He recently published an undergraduate textbook on economic growth.

Harvard University

Erica Field is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics. Previously, she was working at The Institute as a Cohort X Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research. Erica completed her Ph.D. in Economics in 2003 from Princeton University, and joined the Economics Department at Harvard University as an Assistant Professor in the spring of 2005. Her primary fields of interest are development and labor economics, with a regional focus on Latin America. Her past research has examined the household welfare effects of urban land titling programs in developing countries, including the impact of tenure security on labor supply, credit access and fertility. Her current research examines the link between health investments and economic mobility.

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