The Murphy Institute

Faculty

Mary K. Olson

Mary K. Olson

Associate Professor of Economics

Phone

504.865.5317

Fax

504.862.8755

Address

108 Tilton Hall
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA 70118

Office

306 Tilton Hall

Mary K. Olson, Ph.D, is an Associate Professor of Economics at Tulane. Professor Olson’s teaching and research interests include health economics, the political economy of health policy, regulation, and the study of bureaucracy. She is an expert on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation. Her research uses economic and political-economic theories and methods to understand and examine the effects of regulatory policies. She has published articles that examine new-drug approval policies, FDA enforcement strategies, FDA advisory committees, the effects of prescription drug user fees on the FDA, the effects of increased drug review speed on the safety of new medicines, and the risks associated with novel and less novel drugs. Her current research interests include studying the regulatory and firm-specific determinants of drug safety. She is also investigating the barriers to health care access among the Latino population in New Orleans in the post Katrina era.

Dr. Olson has received grant awards from the National Science Foundation, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Smith Richardson Foundation. She also recently served as a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee that assessed the U.S. drug safety system.

Prior to coming to Tulane, Dr. Olson was an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Administration at Yale University and an Assistant Professor of Economics at Washington University. Dr. Olson received a Ph.D. in Political Economics from Stanford University.

Dr. Olson was awarded the 2008 Mortar Board Award for Excellence in Tenured Teaching by the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute and the Newcomb Alumnae Association.

Selected Publications

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