Unlocking Insights: HBS and HKS Professors Celebrate Prestigious Award for Top Health Economics Paper

Marcella Alsan and Joshua Schwartzstein, along with their team, have received the prestigious 2025 Arrow Award for their impactful paper, “Representation and Extrapolation: Evidence from Clinical Trials.” This annual award, given by the International Health Economics Association, recognizes the best health economics research published in English since 1993, honoring the influential work of economist Kenneth Arrow.

Their study, published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, delves into a significant issue: the low enrollment of Black patients in clinical trials across the U.S. The research highlights that this underrepresentation is not merely a statistic; it affects real health outcomes. The authors discovered that participants who historically benefit from medical advancements tend to be less expensive to enroll, which contributes to existing health disparities.

Alsan emphasized the importance of this representation, saying it helps doctors better understand how effective treatments can be for their patients. "When practicing medicine, physicians often wonder if evidence from trials applies to those they see daily. This research assesses how much representation really matters," she noted.

This work merges economics, medicine, and public health. Alsan has focused on health inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic and the historical impact of the Tuskegee syphilis experiments on Black communities. Schwartzstein, a behavioral economist, aims to weave modern psychological research into economic analyses to better understand human behavior in markets and public policy.

Statistics reveal that clinical trial enrollment for Black participants is often around 10%, despite Black individuals making up a larger portion of the population affected by many illnesses. This gap illustrates a pressing need for policy changes and initiatives to ensure broader representation in clinical research.

This research is part of a larger conversation about health equity and the critical need for diverse voices in clinical trials. Ongoing work in this area could reshape how medical research is conducted and ensure that innovations benefit everyone. With both researchers planning future projects at the intersection of behavioral economics and health, the dialogue around this topic is far from over.

For more on this pressing issue, you can explore the International Health Economics Association’s insights and the findings of their award-winning research at this link.

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