Margaret Anne McConnell
Assistant Professor of Global Health Economics
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
677 Huntington Ave Room 1-1217
Boston, MA 02115
(203)745-8321
Education
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
MS in Social Sciences 2007
PhD in Social Sciences2010
Yale University, New Haven, CT: Visiting Assistant in Research, 2007-2008
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT: BA 2003, Major: College of Social Studies
Experience
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Assistant Professor of Global Health Economics, Global Health and Population Department, 2011-current
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Population and Development Studies, 2009-2011
Innovations for Poverty Action, Project Coordinator, Lima, Peru, 2004 – 2005
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Research Associate,New York, NY, 2003- 2004
Professional Affiliations
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, Research Affiliate, 2013 – current
Ideas 42, Research Affiliate, 2011 - current
Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, 2011 - current
Innovations for Poverty Action, Research Affiliate, 2009 – current
Research and Teaching Fields
Applied Microeconomics, Behavioral Economics, Health Economics, Development Economics, Experimental Economics, Global Health
Publications
McConnell, M., Ettenger, A., Rothschild, C., Muigai, F. and Cohen, J. (2016) Can a
Community Health Worker Administered Postpartum Checklist Increase Health-Seeking
Behaviors and Knowledge?: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Nairobi,
Kenya.BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 16: 136.
Karlan, D., McConnell, M., Mullainathan, S. and Zinman, J.(2016). Getting to the Top of
Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving.Management Science, forthcoming.
Kusuma, D., Cohen, J., McConnell, M., and Berman, P. (2016). Can cash transfers improve
determinants of maternal mortality? Evidence from household and community programs in Indonesia. Social Science and Medicine, forthcoming.
Girardi, D., McConnell, M.,Romero, J. and Yariv, L. (2016). Get Out the (Costly) Vote:
Institutional Design for Greater Participation.Economic Inquiry, forthcoming.
Celum, C., Delany-Moretlwe, S., McConnell, M.,van Rooyen, H., Bekker, L., Kurth, A.,
Bukusi, E., Desmond, C., Morton, J. and Baeten, J. (2015). Rethinking HIV prevention to prepare for oral PrEP implementation for young African women. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 18(3): 20227.
Karlan, D. and McConnell, M. (2014). Hey Look at Me: The Effect of Giving Circles on
Giving.Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 106: 402-412.
Fink, G., McConnell, M. and Vollmer, S. (2014). Testing for Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Experimental Data: False Discovery Risks and Correction Procedures.Journal of Development Effectiveness, 6(1): 44-57.
McConnell, M. Behavioral Economics and Aging. (2013). Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 1-2: 83-89.
Sinclair, B., & McConnell, M. and Green, D. (2012). Detecting Spillover Effects: Design
and Analysis of Multilevel Experiments. American Journal of Political Science, 56(4): 1055-1069.
Linardi, S., & McConnell, M. (2011). No Excuses for Good Behavior: Volunteering and the Social Environment. Journal of Public Economics, 95(5-6): 445-454.
Goeree, J. K.,McConnell, M., Mitchell, T. Tromp, T., & Yariv, L. (2010). The 1/d Law of
Giving.American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2(1): 183–203.
Chou, E., McConnell, M., Nagel, R., & Plott, C. (2009). The control of game form recognition in experiments: understanding dominant strategy failures in a simple two person ‘guessing game’. Experimental Economics, 12(2), 159-179.
Manuscripts under review
Cohen, J., Golub, G., Kruk, M. and McConnell, M. (2016) Do Active Patients Seek Higher
Quality Prenatal Care?: A Panel Data Analysis from Nairobi, Kenya. Revise and resubmit. Preventative Medicine.
Li, M. and McConnell, M. (2016) Can Peer Monitoring Reduce Overtreatment? Evidence
from a Laboratory Experiment with Medical Framing. Under review. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
Goldberg, J., Moscoe, E., Austin, B. and McConnell, M.(2016) State Marriage Equality and
Suicide Attempts. Under review. PLOS Medicine.
Fischer, G., Karlan, D., McConnell, M.and Raffler, P. (2015) To Charge or Not to Charge:
Evidence from a Health Products Experiment in Uganda.Under review. Journal of the European Economic Association.
Fink, G., and McConnell, M. (2015) A Spoonful of Luck Makes the Medicine Look Good:
Experimental Evidence on Adoption of Preventive Technologies with Stochastic Health Outcomes. Under review. Health Economics.
Teaching Experience
Instructor, Behavioral Economics and Global Health, Harvard School of Public Health,
Spring 2 2014, Spring 2 2015, Spring 2 2016
Instructor, Economics of Global Health, Harvard University, Spring 2014, 2015
Instructor, Introduction to Economics with Applications to Global Health, Harvard School of
Public Health, Spring 2 2012, Fall 2 2012, Fall 2 2013, Fall 1 2014, Fall 1 2015, Fall 1 2016
Instructor, Quantitative Methods for Impact Evaluation, Harvard School of Public Health,
Spring 2013 (taught jointly with Jessica Cohen)
Teaching Assistant, Quantitative Methods for Impact Evaluation, Professor Jessica Cohen,
Harvard School of Public Health, 2010
College of Social Studies External Examiner, Wesleyan University, 2008
Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Economics, Professor Charles Plott, California Institute
of Technology, 2006, 2008
Teaching Assistant, Organization Design, Professor Colin Camerer, California Institute of
Technology, 2007
Awarded Grants
Healthcare Delivery Initiative: JPAL-MITAmount: $50,000
Title: “Overcoming Financial Barriers to Caring for Pre-term Infants”
PI: Margaret McConnell
Dates 1/1/2016-12/31/2016
Description: This project conducts a pilot randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of unconditional cash transfers on skin-to-skin care and breastfeeding of pre-term infants at Tufts Medical Center.
Urban Services Initiative: JPAL-MITAmount: $50,000
Title: “Waiting Time, Wasting Time: A Randomized Control Trial to Evaluate the Impact of Reducing Waiting Time for ANC in Mozambique”
PI: Margaret McConnell
Dates 1/1/2016-12/31/2016
Description: This project conducts a pilot randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of a scheduling system for ANC designed to reduce waiting times on utilization of ante-natal, delivery and post-natal care in urban clinics in Mozambique.
National Institute of Health/National Institute of Mental HealthAmount: $113,970
Title: “Design and delivery of combination HIV prevention in young South African women”
Subcontract PI: Margaret McConnell
Dates: 04/01/2015 - 03/31/2019
M.McConnell: 8.5% effort (2 years)
Description: This project conducts a randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of incentives for adherence to PrEP among young women.
Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative: JPAL-MITAmount: $113,970
Title: “Translating Adoption of Improved Varieties into Nutritional Impact for Young Children: Proposal for an RCT Exploring Strategies to Increase Consumption of Quality Protein Maize in Ethiopia”
PI: Jessica Cohen
Dates: 8/1/2014-10/31/2016
M.McConnell: 15% effort (2 years)
Description: This project conducts a randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of quality improved maize and behavioral nudges to improve targeted of improved maize to children on nutritional outcomes including anthropometrics and biomarkers.
William and Flora Hewlett FoundationAmount: $112,000
Title: “Nudging Timely Family Planning Action: A Pilot Randomized Experiment in Nairobi”
PI: David Canning
Dates: 7/1/2014-6/30/2016
M.McConnell: 10% effort (2 years)
Description: This project conducts a randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of vouchers incorporating design from behavioral economics on take-up of post-partum family planning.
Gates Grand ChallengesAmount: $100,000
Title: “Can a Decision-Making Nudge Improve Birth Outcomes”
Co-PIs: Jessica Cohen and Margaret McConnell
Dates: 5/31/2014-12/31/2015
M.McConnell: 15% effort (2 years)
Description: This project conducts a randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of pre-commitment vouchers on the quality of maternity care experienced by pregnant women in Nairobi Kenya.
Robert Wood Johnson FoundationAmount: $200,000
Title: “Decision Fatigue in the Emergency Department and the Use of Hospital Services”
Co-PIs: Margaret McConnell and Jeremiah Schuur (Brigham and Women’s)
Dates: 11/1/2013-10/31/2015
M.McConnell: 10% effort (2 years)
Description: This project evaluates whether physicians tend to increase their likelihood of admitting patients over the course of a shift as they become cognitively fatigued.
National Institutes of HealthAmount: $1,249,785
Title: “Nudging Doctors to Collaborate with Pharmacists to Improve Medication Adherence” PI: Ira Wilson (Brown University)
Dates: 9/1/2010-8/31/2013
M. McConnell: 10% effort
Description: This project evaluates the impact of changes in the choice architecture of physicians on adherence to medications for chronic illness.
Lab for Economic Applications and Policy Amount: $10,000
Title: “Negotiating Delivery: Can Spousal Involvement Improve Maternal Health?”
PI: Jessica Cohen and Margaret McConnell
Dates: 9/2010-9/2012
Yale Savings and Payments Research FundAmount: $150,000
Title: “Incentives and Habit Formation”
Co-PIs: Gharad Bryan (LSE) and Margaret McConnell
Dates: 1/2012-12/2013
Program on the Global Demography of Aging
Title: “Pilot for an intervention to measure and correct visual acuity among older people in India and to measure the effects on social and economic wellbeing”
Co-PIs: David Bloom and Margaret McConnell
Dates: 8/2014-7/2015
Harvard Sustainability Science ProgramAmount: $10,000
Title: “Identifying Barriers to Investments in Health: Making the transition from biofuel to gas cooking in Ghana”
PI: Margaret McConnell
Dates: 1/2012-12/2013
Russell Sage FoundationAmount: $5,000
Title: “Encouraging Investments in Health Technology”
PI: Margaret McConnell
Dates: 7/31/2009-7/31-2011
Selected Conference and Seminar Presentations
Behavioral Insights Group, Harvard University, February 2016
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Applying Behavioral Economics to Perplexing Problems
in Health and Health Care Conference, Philadelphia, PA 2013; 2015
American Economic Association, Boston MA, January 2015
Brown University Population Studies and Training Center, Providence RI, October 2014
Rethinking HIV Prevention in Young African Women, Washington DC, July 2014
Behavioral Economics for Innovations in Family Planning and Reproductive Health,
Keynote Speaker, Washington DC, March 2014
New York University Economics Department Seminar, New York, NY, April 2014
Global Health and Innovation Conference, New Haven, CT, April 2014
Wharton Business School Seminar, Philadelphia, PA, February 2014
Harvard Business School Seminar, Cambridge, MA, October 2013
IZA/WZB Workshop: Field Days 2013:Experiments Outside the Lab, Berlin Germany,
August 2013
Microsoft Research, Cambridge, MA, May 2013
Evidence on Innovation in Financial Capability, Innovations for Poverty Action, Lima, Peru
May 2013
Princeton Conference on Foreign Aid, Princeton, NJ, April 2013
Social Dilemmas, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA February 2013
Reviewing Activities
Econometrica, American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Experimental Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, American Economic Journal – Applied Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Management Science, Malaria Journal,
American Journal of Political Science, Labour Economics, Journal of Human Resources,Economic Inquiry, American Political Science Review, Social Networks, The Berkeley Economic Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic History, Review of Economic Design
Media
Interview, El Mercurio, Santiago, Chile, January 27, 2013
Interview on Consumer Talk with Michael Finney on KGO San Francisco, February 2010
“A Jewish Mother in Your Cell Phone: How Nagging Text Messages Can Make You Healthier and Richer,’ Daniel Gross, Slate Online Magazine, November 10, 2009
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