Biography

My research interest is in public health using economics as a tool. Specific topics of interest are: child health in developing countries, HIV/AIDS, pharmaceuticals, and aging.

At the EUI, I will be focusing on aging. I will look at the retirement and saving decisions and how they are influenced by health status, expected longevity, and features of the social security systems using the European data at country levels.

I obtained both my Doctor of Science and Master of Science degrees at the Harvard University School of Public Health, Department of Population and International Health, in 2007 and 2004, respectively. For the doctoral program, I was in the economics track with minors in econometrics and biostatistics.

The title of my doctoral thesis is “Childhood Health, Nutrition, and Adult Height in Developing Countries.” The thesis analyzes 1) proximate determinants of adult height in Sub-Saharan Africa 2) inferences from height to other conventional health and welfare indicators such as infant mortality rates, nutrition, and GDP per capita 3) distinct differences in health, using height as an independent measure, between Sub-Saharan Africa and the other developing countries. Countries I have research and working experience in include: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, the USA, and South Africa. My Master’s thesis was on ‘rational’ use of anti-malarial drugs in northwest Cambodia using community data. I worked as a teaching assistant and helped design and develop the then new course, Pharmaceutical Policy and Global Health, during my graduate school. I have conducted research on HIV testing behavior using community data in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

In 2001, I received my Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Tokyo. Working on child nutrition in Vietnam soon afterwards led me to public health.