Harkness Project Title: Comparing the Massachusetts Model of Health Reform and the Dutch Health Reforms

Placement: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mentors: Jonathan Gruber, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Economics
David Cutler, Ph.D., Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics, Harvard University

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Xander Koolman, Ph.D., a 2010-11 Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is an economist and associate professor of health care performance measurement at Delft University of Technology. He was also co-editor and a lead author on the Dutch Health Care Performance Report (Zorgbalans), responsible for sections on the 2006 reforms, costs, efficiency, inequity, and performance measurement. Koolman also serves as a consulting associate expert at SiRM and as adviser, quality measurement at the provider level, for the Department of Health (Zichtbare Zorg). His research interests include health economics and inequality in health care. Previously, Koolman has served as visiting researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, assistant professor at Erasmus Medical Center, research fellow in the department of economics at the University of York, and editor of VGE bulletin. He is author of 14 peer-reviewed publications in journals including Health Economics and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Koolman holds a Ph.D. from Erasmus University Rotterdam and an M.A. from Maastricht University School of Business and Economics.

Email: x.koolman@gmail.com