{{Short description|Medical scientist and economist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Marcella Alsan | image = | alt = | workplaces = Stanford University (2025-present), Harvard Kennedy School (2019-2025) | alma_mater = Harvard University (BA, MPH, PhD)<br />Loyola University Chicago (MD) | thesis_title = Infectious Disease and Development | doctoral_advisor = David Cutler<ref>{{Cite web|last=Yan|first=Eric|date=September 29, 2021|title=Harvard Kennedy School Professor Marcella Alsan Wins MacArthur Grant {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/9/29/alsan-wins-genius-grant/|access-date=2021-09-30|website=The Crimson}}</ref>, Nathan Nunn, Michael Kremer, Paul Farmer | known_for = Researching health inequality | awards = 2021, MacArthur Fellowship | website = https://economics.stanford.edu/people/marcella-alsan }}
'''Marcella Alsan''' is an American physician and economist at Stanford University. She is known for her works in the field of health inequality and development economics.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-04-05|title=Marcella Alsan|url=https://www.poverty-action.org/people/marcella-alsan|access-date=2021-04-18|website=Innovations for Poverty Action|language=en}}</ref> She is currently a professor of Economics at Stanford University.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marcella Alsan {{!}} Department of Economics |url=https://economics.stanford.edu/people/marcella-alsan |access-date=2025-07-02 |website=economics.stanford.edu |language=en}}</ref> She was previously a professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and an associate professor of medicine at Stanford University.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Marcella Alsan|url=https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/marcella-alsan|access-date=2021-04-18|website=www.hks.harvard.edu|language=en}}</ref> Alsan was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2021.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Limbong|first=Andrew|date=2021-09-28|title=This Year's MacArthur 'Genius Grants' Were Just Announced—Here's The Full Winner List|language=en|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/09/28/1037957309/macarthur-genius-grants-full-list-2021|access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref>
== Education == Alsan received a BA in psychology from Harvard University, ''magna cum laude'', a master's in international public health from the Harvard School of Public Health, an MD from Loyola University ''magna cum laude'', and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.<ref name=":0" /> Alsan also trained with the Global Health Equity Residency in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Partners with BWH and Massachusetts General Hospital.<ref name=":0" />
== Career == Alsan's article, "Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men", with Marianne Wanamaker, found that life expectancy for black men at age 45 fell by 1.5 years following the disclosure of the Tuskegee study in 1972. It accounts for approximately 35% of the variance in the 1980 gap in the life expectancies between black and white men.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Alsan|first1=Marcella|last2=Wanamaker|first2=Marianne|date=2018-02-01|title=Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men*|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjx029|journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics|volume=133|issue=1|pages=407–455|doi=10.1093/qje/qjx029|pmid=30505005|pmc=6258045|issn=0033-5533}}</ref> Her work on the effects of physician workforce diversity in Oakland found that African-American subjects are much more likely to select every preventative health service when meeting a racially concordant doctor.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Alsan|first1=Marcella|last2=Garrick|first2=Owen|last3=Graziani|first3=Grant|date=December 2019|title=Does Diversity Matter for Health? Experimental Evidence from Oakland|journal=American Economic Review|language=en|volume=109|issue=12|pages=4071–4111|doi=10.1257/aer.20181446|issn=0002-8282|doi-access=free}}</ref> Alsan's research on the effects of the tsetse fly on African development showed that ethnic groups living in areas with the TseTse are still affected economically due to its effects on precolonial political centralization.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alsan|first=Marcella|date=January 2015|title=The Effect of the TseTse Fly on African Development|url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20130604|journal=American Economic Review|language=en|volume=105|issue=1|pages=382–410|doi=10.1257/aer.20130604|issn=0002-8282}}</ref> She also has significant publications in the areas of antimicrobial resistance and out of pocket health expenditures, infant mortality, and population health and foreign direct investment.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2006-04-01|title=The effect of population health on foreign direct investment inflows to low- and middle-income countries|url= |journal=World Development|language=en|volume=34|issue=4|pages=613–630|doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.09.006|issn=0305-750X|pmc=7116922|last1=Alsan|first1=Marcella|last2=Bloom|first2=David E.|last3=Canning|first3=David|pmid=32287931}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=2015-10-01|title=Out-of-pocket health expenditures and antimicrobial resistance in low-income and middle-income countries: an economic analysis|url= |journal=The Lancet Infectious Diseases|language=en|volume=15|issue=10|pages=1203–1210|doi=10.1016/S1473-3099(15)00149-8|issn=1473-3099|pmc=4609169|last1=Alsan|first1=Marcella|last2=Schoemaker|first2=Lena|last3=Eggleston|first3=Karen|last4=Kammili|first4=Nagamani|last5=Kolli|first5=Prasanthi|last6=Bhattacharya|first6=Jay|pmid=26164481}}</ref>
Alsan is the co-director of the Health Care Delivery Initiative of J-PAL North America. In her role, she has studied through evaluations the impact of messaging and incentives to increase survey response rates to identify barriers to COVID-19 testing in the US, with Banerjee and Duflo.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Impact of Messaging and Incentives on Survey Response Rates to Understand Barriers COVID-19 Testing in the United States|url=https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/impact-messaging-and-incentives-survey-response-rates-understand-barriers-covid-19|access-date=18 April 2021|website=Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab}}</ref> She has also studied the effects of diversity in COVID-19 communications on health outcomes, and the effects on messages on COVID-19 prevention on preventative behaviours in India.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Marcella Alsan |url=https://www.povertyactionlab.org/person/alsan |access-date=18 April 2021 |website=Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab}}</ref> Alsan has conducted additional research on COVID-19 behaviours and knowledge related disparities.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Alsan|first1=Marcella|last2=Stantcheva|first2=Stefanie|last3=Yang|first3=David|last4=Cutler|first4=David|date=2020-06-18|title=Disparities in Coronavirus 2019 Reported Incidence, Knowledge, and Behavior Among US Adults|journal=JAMA Network Open|volume=3|issue=6|pages=e2012403|doi=10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.12403 |pmc=7303811 |pmid=32556260|issn=2574-3805|doi-access=free}}</ref>
Alsan is on the Social Science advisory board for ''Science'', is an editor for the ''Journal of Health Economics'', and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Marcella Alsan|url=https://www.nber.org/people/marcella_alsan|access-date=2021-04-18|website=NBER|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=M. Alsan|url=https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-health-economics/editorial-board/m-alsan|access-date=2021-04-18|website=www.journals.elsevier.com}}</ref> Alsan was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2021.<ref name=":2">{{cite news | title=MacArthur Foundation Announces 2021 'Genius' Grant Winners | newspaper=The New York Times | date=September 28, 2021 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/28/arts/macarthur-foundation-announces-2021-genius-grant-winners.html | access-date=September 28, 2021}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alsan, Marcella}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Harvard Kennedy School faculty Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni Category:Loyola University Chicago alumni Category:American economists Category:Stanford University School of Medicine faculty Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine Category:MacArthur Fellows