SMU SOE Economics Lecture Series (Mar 10, 2023, 4pm-6pm): Child Health as Human Capital

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Child Health as Human Capital

Child health is increasingly understood to be a critical form of human capital, but only recently have we begun to understand how valuable it is and how its development could be better supported. This presentation provides an overview of recent work that demonstrates the key role of public insurance in supporting longer-term human capital development and points to improvements in child mental health as an especially important mechanism.

Some relevant papers:

1) Child Health as Human Capital

2) Childhood Circumstances and Adult Outcomes: Act II

JANET CURRIE

Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs

Princeton University

Janet Currie is the Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and the Co-director of Princeton's Center for Health and Wellbeing. She also co-directs the Program on Families and Children at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Currie is a pioneer in the economic analysis of child development. Her current research focuses on socioeconomic differences in health and access to health care, environmental threats to health, the important role of mental health, and the long-run impact of health problems in pregnancy and early childhood. Currie is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and of the American Academy of Art and Sciences. She is the President-Elect of the American Economic Association and has served as the President of the American Society of Health Economics, the Society of Labor Economics, the Eastern Economic Association, and the Western Economic Association and as the Vice President of the American Economic Association. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Society of Labor Economists, and of the Econometric Society, and has honorary degrees from the University of Lyon and the University of Zurich. She was named a NOMIS Distinguished Scientist in 2019; one of the top 10 women in Economics by the World Economic Forum in July 2015; and an Alumna of influence by the University of Toronto in 2012. She has served on the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science, as the Editor of the Journal of Economic Literature, and on the editorial boards of many other journals.

Please view the CV here.