Economics Lectures
What Does Health Insurance Do?
Dr. Matthew J. Notowidigdo, University of Chicago (Profile Page)
- Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 2 p.m.
- Mitrani Hall, CU-Bloomsburg
- Attend in person or via livestream
- Lecture is open to the public
Dr. Notowidigdo's lecture will discuss how health insurance confers benefits to the previously uninsured, including improvements in health, reductions in out-of-pocket spending, and reduced medical debt. He argues that health insurance also confers benefits to health care providers, because the uninsured often pay only a small share of their medical expenses. The prevalence of this "uncompensated care" for the uninsured helps explain the limited take-up of heavily-subsidized public health insurance, which is often interpreted as evidence that public health insurance recipients value formal health insurance at substantially less than the cost to insurers of providing that coverage. The Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion has been a useful laboratory for studying all of these economic issues.
Health Care Reform: The Past, Present and Future
Dr. Jonathan Gruber, MIT Department of Economics (Profile Page)
- Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 2 p.m.
- Mitrani Hall, CU-Bloomsburg
- Attend in person or via livestream
- Lecture is open to the public
Dr. Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor and Chair of Economics at MIT, where he’s taught since 1992. A nationally recognized expert in health care policy, he has shaped major reforms including Massachusetts’ health care overhaul and the Affordable Care Act.
He has held leadership roles at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the American Society of Health Economists, and is a member of several prestigious academic societies. Dr. Gruber has authored over 180 research articles and several influential books, including Public Finance and Public Policy, Health Care Reform, and Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream.
His work has earned him numerous honors, including the ASHE Inaugural Medal, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and recognition as one of the most powerful and innovative thinkers in U.S. health care.
Sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs and the Zeigler College of Business.
Past Lectures
Opportunities to Mitigate Climate Change in Developing Countries
Dr. Seema Jayachandran, Professor of Economics, Princeton University
- Thursday, November 14, 2024, 2 p.m.
- Kehr Union, Multipurpose Rooms A&B, CU-Bloomsburg
- Attend in person or via livestream
- Lecture is open to the public
Seema Jayachandran is a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Her research focuses on environmental conservation, gender equality, and other microeconomic topics in developing countries.
She serves on the board of directors of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and leads J-PAL's gender sector. She is also co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research's program in Development Economics and co-editor of American Economic Review: Insights. In addition, she serves on CARE's board of directors.
Prior to joining Princeton, she was a faculty member at Northwestern University and Stanford University. She earned a PhD in economics from Harvard University, a master's degree in physics and philosophy from the University of Oxford where she was a Marshall Scholar, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from MIT.
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