Amy Finkelstein, assistant professor of economics, will deliver the 2007 Sigma Xi Lecture, titled "Researching the Impact of Universal Health Insurance: Lessons from Medicare," at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 26, at the MIT Faculty Club, Building E26. Each year, the MIT chapter of Sigma Xi, the national scientific research society, honors an outstanding junior faculty member with the opportunity to present his or her research to the MIT community. Linn Hobbs, professor of materials science and nuclear engineering, is president of the MIT chapter.
Recent honorees include Angelika Amon, associate professor of biology; Angela Belcher, professor of biological engineering and materials science and engineering; Yoel Fink, associate professor of materials science and engineering; Linda Griffith, professor of biological engineering; Seth Lloyd, professor of mechanical engineering; and Franz-Josef Ulm, professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Finkelstein graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude in government in 1995 and won a Marshall Scholarship to Oxford University. From 1997 to 1998 she worked as a staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers. She received her Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 2001. She joined the MIT faculty in 2005. Finkelstein is associate editor of the Journal of Public Economics and is a faculty research fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Finkelstein's research focuses on two main areas--market failures and government intervention in insurance markets and the impact of public policy on the health care sector, particularly on the development and diffusion of medical technology.
The annual lecture, open to the public, will be preceded by the Sigma Xi dinner for new initiates. Those wishing to attend the dinner at 6:30 p.m. should contact Hobbs at x3-6835 or hobbs@mit.edu.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 25, 2007 (download PDF).
