“Equity and Efficiency in Health and Healthcare”

Gary Becker

Bio: Gary S. Becker received his BA degree from Princeton University, and has Masters and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Chicago. He taught at Columbia University for twelve years before returning to the University of Chicago in 1968. He has honorary degrees from Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Hitotsubashi University, University of Marselles, and many other universities. He is a University Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago, and is Professor Graduate School of Business. He is also the Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute

He won the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science in 1992, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, the National Medal of Science in 2000, the John Bates Clark Medal of the American Economic Association in 1967, and numerous other awards. He is recognized for his expertise in human capital, economic incentives, economics of the family, and economic analysis of crime, discrimination, and population. For almost 20 years he was a featured monthly columnist for Business Week Magazine. He and Judge Richard Posner have a blog at http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/, where every week they debate a different public policy issue.

He has written more than ten books and almost 100 professional articles. His books include Human Capital, The Economics of Discrimination, The Economic Approach to Human Behavior, A Treatise on the Family, The Economics of Life (with Guity Nashat Becker), Social Economics (with Kevin Murphy), and Accounting for Tastes. His books have been translated into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and other languages.

He is a member of the Board of Faster Cures-dedicated to speeding up medical cures-the Board of the Manhattan Institute-a think tank on public policy-the Advisory Committee on Financial Innovation of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the Economic Council that advises Governor Schwarzenegger of California. He was an economic adviser to Senator Robert Dole when he ran for president in 1996.

He has lectured to many groups of academics, business executives, and government officials. He is married to Guity Nashat Becker, a Professor of Middle East History, and they have four children.