University of Chicago economist Tomas J. Philipson, an expert in health care and health-related issues that affect the economy, has been appointed a senior fellow at the Milken Institute.
Philipson will work on health economics issues for the Institute, especially as they relate to its new initiative, FasterCures / The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, which focuses on improving the efficiency of the medical research system.
He is currently on leave from the university, serving as the Senior Economic Advisor to Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Philipson will remain based at the University of Chicago, where he is a professor in the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies and a faculty member in the Department of Economics and Law School.
His research, which addresses the economic analysis of health-care markets and health-related behavior, has been published widely in leading academic journals of economics. He is the recipient of several international and national awards including the Kenneth Arrow Award of the International Health Economics Association in 2000 and the Milken Institute Award for Distinguished Economic Research in 2003.
Prior to CMS, Philipson served as the Senior Economic Adviser to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He joined the University of Chicago as a post-doctoral fellow in 1989 and as a member of the faculty in 1990. He was a visiting faculty member at Yale University in the academic year 1994-95, and a visiting fellow at The World Bank in the winter of 2003.
Philipson was born and raised in Sweden where he obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Uppsala University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.