Health Policy
The health policy program will continue to showcase the strengths of the Murphy Institute by harnessing the expertise of the Health Policy Working Group, with the goal of producing interdisciplinary research that addresses critical healthcare policy issues. The working group has already established a network of professionals from Tulane’s uptown and downtown campuses who are beginning to collaborate on research projects.
Mary Olson is an Associate Professor of Economics at Tulane and leader of the Health Policy Working Group. 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 current research interests include studying the regulatory and firm-specific determinants of drug safety.
Nantaporn Plurphanswat is the post-doctoral researcher in the health policy program. Plurphanswat was awarded her Ph.D. in Economics in May 2011 from University of Illinois at Chicago with a focus on health and labor economics. Her dissertation, “Peers, Genes, and Young Adult Risky Behaviors” investigates the roles of peers and environment in determining adolescent and young adult risky behaviors. From 2006-2007 she was a co-investigator on a grant from the Chicago Center for Excellence in Health Promotion Economics with principal investigator Dr. Robert Kastner.