Eighth - Tenth Annual Conferences of the American Society of Health Economists - Abstract
The purpose of the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Annual American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon) Conference is to
provide an opportunity for a large community of health economists, health services researchers, and health policy
researchers to gather and present research, exchange ideas, gain new skills, and learn about current policy issues in the
field. While we believe these conferences will contain aspects touching on all four types of conference priorities
highlighted by AHRQ, ours is primarily a research development conference.
The conference objectives are as follows:
1) To offer members of the health economics and health policy community in academics, government, contract research
organizations, and industry an opportunity to present and discuss high quality studies representing new, rigorous,
innovative research in important areas of health economics in an intensive large conference setting. The central
component of the conference is the dissemination of cutting edge, policy relevant research. Many of the research
papers that will be presented at ASHEcon annual conference will focus on health and health care disparities, as well as
AHRQ priority populations.
2) To foster the development and implementation of methodologically rigorous approaches in the study of policy
significant empirical health economics and policy research.
3) To provide workshops to enhance the empirical skills and capabilities of health economists and related researchers as
well as to aide students in skill-development, and to facilitate the career development of the next generation of health
economic scholars through career development activities and awards across the career spectrum.
4) To provide opportunities for health economists and the health policy community to engage with one another and
network to create, develop and foster connections for future research collaborations.
Anticipated outcomes include improved research through the exchange of new study findings, dissemination of cutting-
edge methods and crosscutting research ideas, better health policies, and the development of the next generation of
health economics and health policy researchers. The conference provides significant time for networking and fostering
collaboration among researchers. Evaluations of past ASHEcon conferences indicate high marks on all of these
dimensions.
Organized around the general theme of “The Crossroads of Public Policy and Health Economics,” the aims of the
conference are consistent with the mission of AHRQ stated in PA-13-017 for large conference grants “to improve the
quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans” and AHRQ’s goal of supporting conferences
contributing to the dissemination of research findings, to research design and methodology, and to research training,
infrastructure, and career development.
