PEOPLE

Leadership

Casey B. Mulligan

Casey B. Mulligan is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, and has served as Chief Economist for the Council of Economic Advisers in the Trump Administration from September 6, 2018 to August 2019.

He is the author of numerous books, most recently including “You’re Hired!: Untold Successes and Failures of a Populist President” and “Side Effects and Complications: The Economic Consequences of Health Care Reform”

Professor Mulligan has also written numerous opeds and blog entries for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, blogsupplyanddemand.com, and other blogs and periodicals.

He is affiliated with a number of professional organizations, including the National Bureau of Economic Research, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, and the Population Research Center. He is also the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including those from the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Smith- Richardson Foundation, and the John M. Olin Foundation.

Professor Mulligan received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1993. He has also served as a visiting professor teaching public economics at Harvard University, Clemson University, and Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.

Tomas J. Philipson

Tomas J. Philipson is the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. He is an associate member of the Department of Economics and a former senior lecturer at the Law School.

Philipson has served in several public sector positions. He was a member and acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers 2017-2020. He served in the second Bush Administration as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Food and Drug Administration and subsequently as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He served as a health care advisor to Senator John McCain during his campaign for President of the United States. He was appointed by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives to the Key Indicator Commission created by the Affordable Care Act. He has served as a scientific advisor to Congress on the 21st Century Cures legislation and on the steering committee of Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moon Shot Initiative.

Philipson is a founding editor of the journal Forums for Health Economics & Policy of Berkeley Electronic Press and has been on the editorial board of the journal Health Economics and The European Journal of Health Economics. His research has been published widely in all leading academic journals of economics such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Health Economics, Health Affairs, and Econometrica. He is a monthly op-ed contributor for Forbes magazine and frequently appears in numerous popular media outlets such as CNN, CBS, FOX News, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, The Economist, Washington Post, Investor’s Business Daily, and USA Today and is a frequent keynote speaker at many domestic and international health care events and conferences.

Philipson is a fellow, board member, or associate of a number of other organizations outside the University of Chicago, including the National Bureau of Economic Research, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute (where he was chairman of Project FDA), the Heartland Institute, the Milken Institute, the RAND Corporation, and the USC Shaeffer Center for Health Economics and Policy. At the University of Chicago, he is affiliated with the John M. Olin Program of Law & Economics, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, the Population Research Center, and NORC. He has served on the University-wide Council on Research and on the Advisory Committee to the University’s Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer.

He received his MA and PhD in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting faculty member at Yale University and a visiting senior fellow at the World Bank.

ECCHC Research Team

Susu Guo

Susu Guo, MPP Candidate (RA 2023 – present) is a Master of Public Policy student with a specialization in Health Policy and Economic Policy at the Harris School of Public Policy. She earned her BA in Economics and Sociology from Boston College. Susu has served as a Research Assistant and a Research Fellow at Boston College and contributed to National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded research projects. Additionally, she has worked for a health consulting firm helping design market strategies for pharmaceutical companies, focusing on mental-health treatments and digital therapeutics. She was a member of the research team for project titled COVID-19 Biopharmaceutical Innovation and Industry Appropriation.

Outside of school and work, Susu enjoys photography, art-house films, detective fiction, and exploring the city.

Heather Johnson

Heather Johnson, MPP Candidate (RA 2024 – present) is a Master of Public Policy student at the Harris School of Public Policy. She completed her undergraduate studies at Chapman University with a BA in Economics and a minor in History. While at Chapman, she worked as a Research Assistant and was mentored by Professor James Doti. In the 2023 academic year, Heather served as a graduate assistant for the Institute of Politics. Since June 2024, she has been serving as a Research Assistant at the Initiative on Enabling Choice and Competition in Healthcare.

Outside of school and work, Heather enjoys spending time with family, baking, working out, and crafting.

Deyu Zhang

Deyu Zhang, MACSS-Econ Candidate (RA 2025 – present) is a first-year Master’s student in Computational Social Science with a concentration in Economics. He received his BS in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and has been a Phi Beta Kappa society member since 2024.

He is proficient at various quantitative research methods including machine learning and time series analysis. During his undergraduate studies, he worked as a research assistant to support the application of machine learning in Economics research. In his senior year, as a research apprentice in the Department of Political Science, he contributed to a climate policy research project. Additionally, he completed an independent project on climate policy & public opinion and presented it at the undergraduate research symposium. In the summer of 2024, he worked as a data analyst intern at the People’s Bank of China, researching the U.S. dollar cycle and national current account balance.

Outside of school and work, Deyu enjoys basketball, Kendo, working out, and reading science fiction. View his LinkedIn here.

Qi Zhao

Qi Zhao, MPP Candidate (RA 2023 – 2024) is currently in her first year of a Master of Science in Computational Analysis and Public Policy at the Harris School of Public Policy. She has completed her PhD in Public Administration from Peking University and served in several positions, including lecturer, research fellow, post-doctoral researcher, and project manager at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing.

She excels in both quantitative and qualitative policy analysis and has also published several peer-reviewed papers and presented at the APSA Global Annual Meeting. She also possesses extensive experience in project management and data analysis, serving as both a team leader and data analyst for multiple consulting reports. These reports, commissioned by various local governments in China, address critical issues such as compulsory education, ecological environmental protection, elderly care services and digital transformation. She was part of the ECCHC research team for project titled COVID-19 Biopharmaceutical Innovation and Industry Appropriation

Qi enjoys puzzles, Lego, climbing, and exploring sweet foods outside academia and work.