Co-sponsored by Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development, and the Asia Health Policy Program

Plastic pollution and antibiotic resistance are significant threats to human health. The overuse of plastic products and antibiotics, often driven by individual behaviors, plays a major role in these challenges. The presence of externalities leads to further overuse, intensifying the problem. In this webinar, we will present two research studies that employ the nudge strategy to explore its effectiveness as a low-cost method in promoting socially desirable behaviors. We will focus on the contexts of disposable cutlery consumption and antibiotic utilization, providing insights into how subtle behavioral interventions can have a meaningful impact.

Title 1: Reducing single-use cutlery with green nudges: Evidence from China’s food-delivery industry

Rising consumer demand for online food delivery has increased the consumption of disposable cutlery, leading to plastic pollution worldwide. In this work, we investigate the impact of green nudges on single-use cutlery consumption in China. In collaboration with Alibaba’s food-delivery platform, Eleme (which is similar to Uber Eats and DoorDash), we analyzed detailed customer-level data and found that the green nudges—changing the default to “no cutlery” and rewarding consumers with “green points”— increased the share of no-cutlery orders by 648%. The environmental benefits are sizable: If green nudges were applied to all of China, more than 21.75 billion sets of single-use cutlery could be saved annually, equivalent to preventing the generation of 3.26 million metric tons of plastic waste and saving 5.44 million trees. 

Title 2: The Impact of Self- or Social-regarding Messages: Experimental Evidence on Antibiotics Purchases in China

We study two interventions in Beijing, China, that provide patients with information on antibiotic resistance via text message to discourage the overuse of antibiotics. The messages were sent once a month for five months. One intervention emphasizes the threat to the recipient's own health and is found to have negligible effects. The other intervention, which highlights the overall threat to society, reduces antibiotics purchases by 17% in dosage without discouraging healthcare visits and other medicine purchases. The results demonstrate that prosocial messaging can have the potential to address public health issues that require collective action.

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Yuhang Pan's research fields include environmental economics, health economics, and development economics, with a particular focus on using causal inference approach to study the impact of environmental pollution, public policy, and climate change on health and social welfare. His works have been published in both economics and scientific journals, such as Science, Nature Sustainability, and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. Dr. Pan obtained his undergraduate degree from Beijing Normal University in 2015 and his doctoral degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2021. Prior to joining Peking University, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Hong Kong.

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Jianan Yang's primary research fields are health economics and development economics, with specific interests in health policy reform, medical behavior, and pharmaceutical innovation. She employs both experimental and quasi-experimental methods to explore policy-related questions, particularly examining their impact on patient welfare. She has published in top journals like the Journal of Development Economics. She earned her bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Mathematics from Renmin University of China in 2016, and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego in 2022. Before joining Peking University, she was the 2022-2023 Developing Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. 

In the course of his reign as Cambodia’s prime minister from 1985 to 2023, Hun Sen forcibly dissolved the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) and turned his country into a one-party state under his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). After summarizing that history, Dr. Im will show how Hun Sen copied and expanded the CNRP’s commitment to social welfare, including cash transfers to Cambodia’s poorest and most vulnerable households. The 2013 election could have led to Hun Sen’s downfall. Instead, by combining coercive capacity with policy reform, he managed to legitimize his regime. Dr. Im will portray Hun Sen’s rule as a unique case study in authoritarian legitimation that stands in contrast to the survival strategies of other autocratic states such as China.

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Soksamphoas Im is a Research Affiliate at the University of Michigan’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies. At Stanford, she is working on a book manuscript provisionally entitled Authoritarian Resiliency: The Politics of Social Protection Policy in Cambodia. Her latest writings on Cambodia (2023) have appeared in the Journal of Industrial Relations, Research on Ageing and Social Policy, Asian Politics & Policy, and forthcoming in Asian Studies Review, Routledge Handbook of Autocratization in Southeast Asia, and Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights. She holds an MA and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and an MSc in Defense, Development, and Diplomacy from Durham University in the UK.

In this hybrid seminar, Professor Lee will reflect on her pioneering and collaborative research on late-life cognition and dementia across multiple settings. Drawing on empirical evidence and carefully harmonized surveys of health and aging (e.g., for Korea, Japan, China, India, the US and Europe), Professor Lee will assess the state of knowledge and evidence regarding risk and resilience factors and the potential for preventing cognitive decline. Her talk will conclude with discussion of current initiatives and global dialogues (political, academic, and industry) about healthy brain aging.

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Dr. Jinkook Lee is a Research Professor of Economics and the Program Director of Global Aging, Health, and Policy at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the economics of aging, with interdisciplinary training and expertise in large-scale population surveys. As the Principal Investigator on several NIH-funded grants, she laid the groundwork for studying Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia and their risk factors and impacts in low and middle-income countries. She has developed the country’s first and only population representative dementia study in India and helped developing sister studies in China, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, and Malawi. She provides scientific advice for WHO, OECD, World Bank, and Asia Development Bank and serves on the editorial boards for several scientific journals. She previously held a professorship at Ohio State University and the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She received her Ph.D. from Ohio State University and B.S. from Seoul National University.

As part of Stanford's Asia Pacific Research Center (APARC) event series focused on APEC 2023, the China Program is pleased to present the concluding session, 'The Future of Multilateral Institutions in the Era of Great Power Competition.' We invite you to join us for this session, where we will delve into how the U.S., China, and other APEC members are adapting and evolving their strategies for engaging within international organizations. We’ll also cast a spotlight on the outcomes of APEC 2023 and their implications for understanding how multilateral institutions are adjusting to the challenges of an era marked by geopolitical rivalry.

This event is part of the series Exploring APEC’s Role in Facilitating Regional Cooperation.

Matthew P. Goodman is distinguished fellow for global economic policy and director of the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He leads a cross-cutting program on global economics at CFR that works to develop new approaches to trade and other international economic policies. Prior to joining CFR in September 2023, Goodman was senior vice president for economics and Simon chair in political economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). From 2010 to 2012, he served as director for international economics on the National Security Council staff, helping the U.S. president prepare for global and regional summits, including for the Group of 20, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and East Asia Summit. Prior to serving in the White House, he was senior advisor to the undersecretary for economic affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Before joining the Barack Obama administration in 2009, Goodman worked for five years at Albright Stonebridge Group, where he was managing director for Asia. From 2002 to 2004, he served at the White House as director for Asian economic affairs on the National Security Council staff. Prior to that, he spent five years at Goldman Sachs, heading the bank’s government affairs operations in Tokyo and London. From 1988 to 1997, he worked as an international economist at the U.S. Treasury Department, including five years as financial attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo. Goodman holds a BSc in economics from the London School of Economics and an MA in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Michael McFaul is Director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in the Department of Political Science, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995. Dr. McFaul also is as an International Affairs Analyst for NBC News and a columnist for The Washington Post. He served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014). He has authored several books, most recently the New York Times bestseller From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia. Earlier books include Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should, How We Can; Transitions To Democracy: A Comparative Perspective (eds. with Kathryn Stoner); Power and Purpose: American Policy toward Russia after the Cold War (with James Goldgeier); and Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin. His current research interests include American foreign policy, great power relations, and the relationship between democracy and development. Dr. McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his B.A. in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his M.A. in Soviet and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his D. Phil. in International Relations at Oxford University in 1991.

Laura Stone, a member of the US Department of State, is the Inaugural China Policy Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC).  She was formerly Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Maldives, the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Mongolia, the Director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs, and the Director of the Economic Policy Office in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. She served in Beijing, Bangkok, Tokyo, the Public Affairs Bureau, the Pentagon Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. While at APARC, she is conducting research with the China Program on contemporary China affairs and U.S.-China policy.

This event is part of the series Exploring APEC’s Role in Facilitating Regional Cooperation.

Energy is essential for economic development, but energy use is a major contributor to global warming.  Most can agree that transition from fossil fuels to sustainable (green) energy is imperative for long-term sustainability, but how to make that transition while maintaining and increasing growth and prosperity is not self-evident.  This panel will examine energy challenges in general, how they play out and are perceived in the APEC region, and how APEC has attempted to find cooperative solutions.

Panelists:
 

Larry Goulder, Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics, Director of the Stanford Center for Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Precourt Institute for the Environment, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; and a University Fellow of Resources of the Future

Lawrence H. Goulder is the Shuzo Nishihara Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Center for Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Precourt Institute for the Environment, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; and a University Fellow of Resources for the Future. Goulder's research covers a range of environmental issues, including green tax reform, the design of environmental tax systems and emissions trading policies, climate change policy, and comprehensive wealth measurement ("green" accounting). He has served on several advisory committees to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board and the California Air Resources Board, and as co-editor of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy.

Larry Greenwood, Chairman of the Board of the Japan Society of Northern California, Senior Adviser at BowerGroupAsia, US Ambassador to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group from 2000-2003

Larry Greenwood is Senior Adviser at BowerGroupAsia, a strategic advisory firm that specializes in the Asia-Pacific.  He is also Chair of the Japan Society of Northern California after serving as its President from 2016-2020.  From 2011-2015, Larry was Senior Managing Director for Government Relations in Asia for MetLife based in Tokyo responsible for shaping insurance policies and regulations in Asia and from 2006-2011 was Vice President at the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines where he oversaw ADB’s annual loan and grant operations of about $7 billion in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Island countries. 

Larry was a career diplomat from 1976-2006 where he worked on economic issues in the State Department in Washington, DC and at US Embassies in Manila, Dakar, Singapore and twice in Tokyo.  He served as US Ambassador to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group and retired as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Economic Bureau of the State Department where he was responsible for international financial and development matters. He holds a BA from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida and an MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford Massachusetts.  He speaks and reads Japanese and French.

Gita Wirjawan, Former Minister of Trade and former Chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board of the Republic of Indonesia, Founder of Ancora Group and Ancora Foundation, Visiting Scholar at Shorenstein APARC

Gita Wirjawan is a visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center, Freeman Spogli Institute, Stanford University. He is the host of a Southeast Asia educational podcast called Endgame, a member of the Board of Governors of the Asia School of Business (MIT Sloan), a member of the international council of the Yale School of Management, and chairman of the Advisory Board of the School of Government and Public Policy (SGPP) Indonesia. While as chairman of Ancora Group, a business group based in Indonesia, he is also a partner at Ikhlas Capital, a Singapore-based Southeast Asia private equity fund. He is also an adviser to a number of Southeast Asia-based venture capital firms, including Alpha JWC Ventures, Monk's Hill Ventures, Jungle Ventures, and Intudo Ventures. He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of Chubb. Previously, he was trade minister and chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board of the Republic of Indonesia during the years 2009–2014, a banker at JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citibank, and a public accountant. He received his MPA at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, MBA at Baylor University, and BBA at the University of Texas, Austin.

Moderator:

Thomas Fingar, Fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, former U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Analysis, Director of the Office of Analysis for East Asia and the Pacific, and Chief of the China Division, former Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis, and Chairman of the National Intelligence Council

Thomas Fingar is a Shorenstein APARC Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. From 2005 through 2008, he served as the first Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis and, concurrently, as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Previous positions include Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (2000-2001 and 2004-2005), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (2001-2003), and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Analysis (1994-2000). Dr. Fingar is a graduate of Cornell University (A.B. in Government and History, 1968), and Stanford University (M.A., 1969 and Ph.D., 1977 both in Political Science).  Recent books include Reducing Uncertainty:  Intelligence Analysis and National Security (Stanford University Press, 2011), Fateful Decisions: Choices that will Shape China’s Future (edited with Jean Oi, Stanford, 2020); and From Mandate to Blueprint: Lessons from Intelligence Reform (Stanford University Press, 2021).

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This event is part of the series Exploring APEC’s Role in Facilitating Regional Cooperation.

Digital health technologies hold great promise to strengthen health systems in the Asia-Pacific region and provide affordable access for remote and vulnerable populations. But what is the evidence about how digital health initiatives work in practice in low resource settings? What incentive structures and provider skillsets are needed to improve health equity, health service quality, and health system resilience at an affordable cost? What is the role of APEC in promoting these innovations while also addressing concerns about data privacy and security? This colloquium explores these questions with case studies from South and Southeast Asia. Our three expert speakers discuss how APEC members are actively experimenting with “innovative digital health solutions to increase access to, and delivery of, health services,” as highlighted in the Chair's Statement of the 13th APEC High-Level Meeting on Health and the Economy. 

Panelists:

CK Cheruvettolil, Senior Strategy Officer, Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

CK Cheruvettolil is a Senior Strategy Officer on the Gates Foundation Artificial Intelligence Taskforce. He leads the deployment of AI solutions in Asia and works closely with governments, public health agencies and health service providers to identify and fund digital technologies that could have impact. CK has been at the Gates Foundation for 12 years in a variety of roles including financing and strategy for global vaccine development and disease surveillance. 
Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, CK spent 8-years as a consultant to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this capacity, he played a crucial role in designing the technical framework for the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network.

Kiran Gopal Vaska, Director of the National Health Authority of India

Mr. Kiran Gopal Vaska is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) currently working at the National Health Authority, New Delhi. In his earlier roles, he worked at various levels of government in the areas of power, rural development, health and family welfare, education, and industrial development, among others. As Managing Director of MP Eastern Zone Power Distribution Company, he led the digitization of the company including GIS mapping of the entire power network, introduction of smart meter technologies, and more. He led the development of an online single window system and was instrumental in Madhya Pradesh state ranking among the top 5 states in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) in India for 2016. Before joining government service, he worked in the finance industry performing risk analytics for hedge funds and banks.

Moderator:

​​Dr. Siyan Yi, Assistant Professor and Director of Integrated Research Program at National University of Singapore; 2011-12 Developing Asia Health Policy Fellow, Shorenstein APARC

Dr. Yi is a medical doctor and an infectious disease epidemiologist by training. He received his PhD from the School of International Health of the University of Tokyo in Japan in 2010. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Asia Health Policy Program, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center, Stanford University from 2011-2012. He is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Integrated Research Program at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore. He also serves as Director of KHANA Center for Population Health Research in Cambodia and Adjunct Associate Professor at Touro University California, the United States. His implementation research program focuses on developing and evaluating community-based innovative interventions for improving access to prevention, treatment, and care services for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, sexual and reproductive health, and maternal and child health among vulnerable and marginalized populations in Southeast Asia.

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Ever since its informal beginnings in late 1989, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has been a central hub for economic engagement and cooperation around the Pacific Rim, both shaping and being shaped by developments in the region over an extraordinary period of trade and economic expansion.  As leaders from 21 APEC member economies prepare to meet in San Francisco in November, we will explore APEC's evolution over its three-decade-plus history to consider both its role and contributions in the Asia-Pacific region to date, as well as explore its challenges and relevance in the region going forward.  Is APEC still hitting its regional economic cooperation target and how might APEC better achieve its goals?

Speakers

Aida Safinaz Allias, Minister for Economic Affairs, Embassy of Malaysia to the United States; Former APEC Senior Official for Malaysia.

Ms. Aida Safinaz Allias currently serves as the Minister (Economic Affairs) at the Embassy of Malaysia in Washington, D.C. This is her second time in D.C., her first being during her intern days at the US-Asia Institute in DC circa the mid-90s.

She has served in the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade & Industry (MITI) for 23 years, since the year 2000, starting at the Industry Wing in various capacities including with the iron & steel, E&E, and investment units, before crossing over to the Trade Wing at the Multilateral Trade Policy and Negotiations Division. Subsequently, she was posted to the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the WTO, Geneva, Switzerland as the Economic Counsellor in charge of Services trade negotiations from 2005-2007.

Following that, she returned to HQ and was posted at the FTA Coordination Division as the Principal Assistant Director (2007-2009). From 2011-2013, she gained her first experience in APEC work at the APEC Division in MITI as the Malaysian Lead at the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), during which she had the opportunity to serve as the Market Access Group (MAG) Convenor.

Pursuant to that she was again posted as Minister Counsellor (Economic Affairs) at the Malaysian High Commission in New Delhi from 2013-2016. Later, she returned to MITI HQ as Director of the Services Sector Development Division before she was tasked to lead the Substantive Unit of the APEC 2020 National Secretariat in 2018 when it was established for the Malaysian hosting of APEC 2020. Ms. Allias was then promoted to Senior Director of APEC Division in 2019 (also overseeing the APEC 2020 National Secretariat, which was incidental to the successful hosting of APEC 2020). From 2019 - 2021, she also served as the Malaysian APEC Senior Official. During the hosting of APEC 2020, she led the Malaysian Delegation to the successful drafting and conclusion of many important consensus documents at APEC, the most notable being the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040.

She received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A) in International Relations from Syracuse University, New York. She also holds a Diploma in Public Administration from the Malaysian National Public Administration Institute (INTAN).

Amb. Kurt Tong, Managing Partner, The Asia Group; Former U.S. Ambassador for APEC; Former U.S. Consul General and Chief of Mission in Hong Kong and Macau.

Ambassador Kurt Tong is Managing Partner and member of the Executive Committee at The Asia Group, where he leads consulting teams focused on Japan, China, and Hong Kong, and on East Asia regional policy matters. He also leads the firm’s innovative thought leadership programs. A leading expert in diplomacy and economic affairs in East Asia, Ambassador Tong brings thirty years of experience in the Department of State as a career Foreign Service Officer and member of the Senior Foreign Service.

Moderator

Michael Beeman, Former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan, Korea and APEC at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; Visiting Scholar at Shorenstein APARC.

Michael Beeman is a Visiting Scholar during 2023 at Shorenstein APARC. Previously, he served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan, Korea, and APEC at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). In that role, he led the renegotiation of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement and the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement, among other initiatives. After joining the U.S. government in 1998, he served in various other capacities for the Department of Commerce, for the U.S. Executive Director to the World Bank, and for USTR. He received his D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in Politics from the University of Oxford in 1998 and is the author of Public Policy and Economic Competition in Japan (Routledge, 2002).

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AHPP 2023-24 Colloquium series, “Technology, Trust, and Healthy Aging”

Patient trust is an important driver of the demand for healthcare. But it may also impact supply: doctors who realize that patients may not trust them may adjust their behavior in response. We assemble a large dataset that assesses clinical performance using standardized-patients (akin to audit studies in economics) in low-income countries to investigate this possibility; most of these data are on healthcare providers who practice in the private sector on a fee-for-service basis. 

We establish that patients receive low quality of care, with a generous definition suggesting that fewer than 50% of cases are correctly managed, and between 70% and 90% of expenditures are medically unnecessary. Strikingly, and in contrast to the literature suggesting that the main problem with fee-for-service provision is over-treatment, the majority of these unnecessary expenditures are incurred because patients are incorrectly rather than over-treated. 

We then rule out two plausible explanations for low quality of care: low levels of medical knowledge and low market incentives to invest effort. In our data, there are many healthcare providers who know how to correctly treat the patient and could substantially increase their revenue by doing so given the price-quality gradients we estimate, but still treat the patient incorrectly. 

A model of the patient-provider relationship in which patients have incomplete information about the quality of providers generates predictions consistent with our findings. The theory additionally suggests that issuing a credible signal of quality should raise the average quality of care among providers, even if their underlying ability remains unchanged. 

We assess this prediction through an evaluation of a highly publicized training program with informal healthcare providers in West Bengal, India. The program has no impact on knowledge, yet substantially raises the quality of care, leading to an increase in the likelihood of correct treatment, a 19% decline in unnecessary expenditures for patients and a 9% increase in revenues for providers. We conclude that low trust undermines clinical performance in an economically and medically significant manner.

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Reshmaan Hussam is an assistant professor of business administration in the Business, Government and International Economy Unit at Harvard University's Business School, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and a faculty affiliate at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD).

Her research explores questions at the intersection of development and behavioral economics, with research in three areas: migration, health, and finance.  Her most recent work engages refugee populations including the Rohingya in Bangladesh, examining the psychosocial value of employment in contexts of mass unemployment, the role of home in migration decision-making, and refugee preferences for repatriation, integration, and resettlement. In her work in health, which involves field experiments across South Asia, she considers the puzzle of the ubiquitously low adoption of low-cost, high-return goods, behaviors, and technologies in the developing world, exploring the role of learning and habit formation in behavior change. Her work in finance explores how to identify high-return microentrepreneurs using local community knowledge in India and how to increase credit access and returns to capital among refugee communities in Uganda.

Prior to joining HBS, Professor Hussam was a postdoctoral fellow at the Economic Growth Center at Yale University. She received her SB and PhD in economics from MIT.