Gies College of Business hosted leading researchers from the region and beyond on September 24-25 at the 2026 Midwest Health Economics Conference.

“People often find it surprising that we have health economists in a business school,” said David Molitor, Director of the Health Care Research Initiative and associate professor of finance at Gies Business. “It might seem more natural to find them in a school of public health or a school of medicine. But healthcare is a major part of the US economy, healthcare costs put a lot of pressure on employees and employers, and many business and public policy decisions involve health and healthcare. So, in many ways, a business school is an ideal place for teaching and research on healthcare issues.”

Now in its second decade and held at different institutions each year, the conference serves as a forum for discussion featuring working papers on trending topics in the field. Molitor said the decision to host it on the Illinois campus this year was strategic in nature.

“We wanted to host this year, in part to showcase our new building (Wymer Hall), but primarily because we have a lot of strength in health economics in general, including recent faculty and postdoctoral scholar hires,” Molitor said.

The conference highlights economic forces shaping healthcare markets, access, and outcomes, with a particular emphasis on how public policy, regulation, and institutional incentives influence healthcare delivery.

Prior to the conference, discussants are assigned to review each paper. In each session, a researcher presents a working paper, the discussant provides a summary and critique from an outside perspective, and then the floor is opened for additional questions and discussion.

“Authors invest years working on these papers, and sometimes when you spend time working so deeply on something, you might miss important aspects that help a paper improve and connect to other areas,” Molitor explained. “The discussants offer a real service by providing this commentary. Oftentimes, that gives the audience a better understanding of the paper than if they just heard from the author.”

Molitor adds that the format benefits the authors because it allows them to address weaknesses before presenting it to a journal for publication.

“Sometimes papers are technically sound, but they lack a convincing pitch for why people should care about it,” Molitor said. “This is also a way for more junior faculty to gain exposure to some of the most respected researchers in the field.”

The conference itself was loosely divided into themes. Major themes included healthcare financing and pricing, insurance and Medicare policy, hospital and pharmaceutical markets, and the effects of information and market design on healthcare decisions.

During the first day, University of Wisconsin researchers Daniel Sacks and Justin Sydnor led a forum titled “Preferences, Beliefs, and the Demand for Flu Vaccines.” The session looked at influences that determine people’s decision on whether or not to get the flu vaccine. Alden Cheng, a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) postdoctoral researcher at Gies Business, served as the discussant.

“What they found is that vaccine hesitancy isn't necessarily driven by misinformation or a general distrust of vaccines,” Molitor said. “People are weighing how likely they are to get sick, how effective they think the vaccine will be, and the potential side effects. One of the most interesting findings was that people who are hesitant about getting vaccinated tend to overestimate the risk of side effects. That suggests that providing better information about those risks could make a real difference in vaccination rates.”  

A session titled “Trading Goods for Lives: NAFTA’s Mortality Impacts and Implications,” led off the second day of forums. It examined how free trade agreements like NAFTA have affected jobs and public health in the United States, particularly in communities that have lost manufacturing jobs to foreign competition.

“What’s interesting is that previous research has found that people in areas hit hardest by recessions actually tend to live longer,” Molitor said. “But this study found that it really depends on which industries are losing jobs. When manufacturing jobs disappear because of competition from countries like Mexico or China, mortality rates actually increase, particularly among working-age men.”

The researchers also found that the effects weren't limited to workers who lost their jobs. Mortality rates increased among older adults as well, suggesting that the consequences of job losses can extend to entire families.

“One possible explanation is that losing a manufacturing job can be particularly difficult, both financially and emotionally,” Molitor said. “These jobs often pay well, and losing them can have long-term consequences for workers and their communities. The paper shows that the impact of free trade can go beyond the number of jobs gained or lost and have real consequences for people’s health, too.”