{{short description|American economist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Heidi Williams | image = | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1981}} | birth_place = United States | death_date = | death_place = | fields = Economist | workplaces = Dartmouth College | alma_mater = Dartmouth College; Oxford University; Harvard University | doctoral_advisor = David Cutler<ref name="Advisors">{{Cite web |url=http://economics.mit.edu/faculty/heidiw/cv |title=Williams's CV |access-date=2016-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220002519/http://economics.mit.edu/faculty/heidiw/cv |archive-date=2019-02-20 |url-status=dead }}</ref><br>Amy Finkelstein<ref name="Advisors" /><br>Lawrence F. Katz<ref name="Advisors" /> | known_for = Economics of Innovation }} '''Heidi Williams''' (born 1981) is an American professor of economics at Dartmouth College<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-01 |title=Heidi L. Williams |url=https://economics.dartmouth.edu/people/heidi-l-williams |access-date=2023-09-29 |website=Department of Economics |language=en}}</ref> and Director of Science Policy at the Institute for Progress. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and earned her MSc in development economics from Oxford University and her PhD in economics from Harvard University. Prior to Dartmouth, Williams was the Charles R. Schwab Professor of Economics at Stanford University<ref>{{Cite web |title=Heidi L. Williams' Profile {{!}} Stanford Profiles |url=https://profiles.stanford.edu/heidi-williams?releaseVersion=9.9.0 |access-date=2023-09-29 |website=profiles.stanford.edu}}</ref> and an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<ref>{{cite web | title=Heidi Williams MIT Web Page | url=http://economics.mit.edu/faculty/heidiw}}</ref> She is a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Williams is an applied micro-economist who works on the causes and consequences of technological change in health care markets. Specifically, she studies economic and policy factors that affect medical innovation, and quantifies the impacts of "missing innovation" that could have been beneficial for human health and medicine.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|title = What Cures Are We Missing Out On?|url = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-30/what-cures-are-we-missing-out-on-ask-this-macarthur-genius|newspaper = Bloomberg|access-date = 2015-11-02|first = John Tozzi|last = jtozz| date=30 September 2015 }}</ref> She is most well known for her work on the Human Genome Project. In her dissertation research, Williams shows that intellectual property held by the company Celera on human genome sequences had negative consequences for the development of scientific research and genetic tests based on those genes.<ref>{{Cite web|title = "Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome," H. Williams (2010)|url = https://afinetheorem.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/intellectual-property-rights-and-innovation-evidence-from-the-human-genome-h-williams-2010/|website = A Fine Theorem|access-date = 2015-11-02|date = 2010-09-27}}</ref> In some other work, Williams and her co-authors show that pharmaceutical firms under-invest in research in early-stage cancer drugs because they take longer time to get to market, as compared to drugs for late-stage cancer.<ref name=":0" />
In 2015, Williams was made a MacArthur Fellow, a grant given yearly to 25 people around the world to continue work in their fields.<ref>{{cite web | title=Heidi Williams wins Macarthur Genius Grant, MIT News, September 29, 2015 | url=https://news.mit.edu/2015/heidi-williams-wins-macarthur-genius-grant-0929/}}</ref> Her citation<ref>{{cite web | title=Heidi Williams Macartur Fellow Citation, 2015 | url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/951/}}</ref> for that award noted:
{{blockquote|Heidi Williams is an economist unraveling the causes and consequences of innovation in health care markets. Williams combines finely grained empirical observations and custom-designed data collection methods to build entirely new datasets about technological changes in health care. In addition, her creative methods for determining causal inference, and keen understanding of regulatory law, biological science, and medical research, have allowed her to trace the interplay among institutions, market behavior, and public policy–relevant outcomes.}}In June 2021, Williams was a co-recipient of the biennial ASHEcon Medal, an award from the American Society of Health Economists for researchers aged 40 and under who have made significant contributions to the field of health economics.<ref>{{Cite web|title=2021 ASHEcon Award Winners – ASHEcon|url=https://www.ashecon.org/ashecon-2021/2021-ashecon-award-winners/|access-date=2021-07-04|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kasabian |first=Kim |title=Stanford Economists Awarded 2021 ASHEcon Medal {{!}} Stanford Humanities and Sciences |url=https://humsci.stanford.edu/feature/stanford-economists-awarded-2021-ashecon-medal |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=humsci.stanford.edu |language=en}}</ref>
== Publications == *{{cite journal |title=Sources of Geographic Variation in Health Care: Evidence from Patient Migration |first1=Amy |last1=Finkelstein |first2=Matthew |last2=Gentzkow|author-link2=Matthew Gentzkow|first3=Heidi |last3=Williams |author-mask3=3 |year=2016 |journal=Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=131 |issue=4 |pages=1681–1726 |doi=10.3386/w20789 |pmid=28111482 |pmc=5243120 }} *{{cite journal |title=Why is Infant Mortality Higher in the US Than in Europe? |first1=Alice |last1=Chen |first2=Emily |last2=Oster |author-link2=Emily Oster |first3=Heidi |last3=Williams |author-mask3=3 |year=2016 |journal=American Economic Journal: Economic Policy |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=89–124 |doi=10.3386/w20525 |pmid=27158418 |pmc=4856058}} *{{cite journal |title=Paying on the Margin for Medical Care: Evidence from Breast Cancer Treatments |first1=Liran |last1=Einav |first2=Amy |last2=Finkelstein |first3=Heidi |last3=Williams |author-mask3=3 |year=2016 |journal=American Economic Journal: Economic Policy |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=52–79 |doi=10.3386/w20226 |pmid=26900414 |pmc=4758371 }} *{{cite journal |title=Do Firms Underinvest in Long-Term Research? Evidence from Cancer Clinical Trials |first1=Eric |last1=Budish |first2=Benjamin |last2=Roin |first3=Heidi |last3=Williams |author-mask3=3 |year=2015 |journal=American Economic Review |volume=105 |issue=7 |pages=2044–2085 |doi=10.1257/aer.20131176 |pmid=26345455 |pmc=4557975 |doi-access=free }} *{{cite journal |first=Heidi |last=Williams |author-mask=3 |title=Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome |year=2013 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=121 |issue=1 |pages=1–27 |doi=10.1086/669706 |pmid=24639594 |pmc=3955392 }} *{{cite journal |title=Estimating Marginal Returns to Medical Care: Evidence from At-Risk Newborns |first1=Douglas |last1=Almond |first2=Joseph |last2=Doyle |first3=Amanda |last3=Kowalski |first4=Heidi |last4=Williams |author-mask4=3 |year=2010 |journal=Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=125 |issue=2 |pages=591–634 |doi=10.1162/qjec.2010.125.2.591 |pmid=20634927 |pmc=2903901 }}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://heidi-williams.humsci.stanford.edu/bio Heidi Williams bio] at humsci.stanford.edu * [http://economics.mit.edu/faculty/heidiw Heidi Williams] at economics.mit.edu * {{Google scholar id}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Heidi}} Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society Category:MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty Category:Dartmouth College alumni Category:American women economists Category:21st-century American economists Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:21st-century American women Category:21st-century American statisticians