John R. Moran
Associate Professor of Risk Management
John Moran joined Penn State University as an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Administration in 2006, splitting his appointment with the Department of Risk Management in 2023. Prior to his current position at Penn State, John was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Syracuse University and a Research Fellow In the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Scholars in Health Policy Research Program at the University of Michigan. In 2004, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University and held the Wolf Professorship in Health Policy and Administration at Penn State from 2006 - 2008. John's research interests focus on the functioning of health insurance markets and the way in which health shocks impact labor-market outcomes and the use of medical care. His work has appeared in The RAND Journal of Economics, The Journal of Law and Economics, The Journal of Human Resources, The Journal of Health Economics, The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and The Journal of Risk and Insurance. From 2013 - 2018, he was an associate editor for The Journal of Risk and Insurance and served on the editorial board of the Geneva Risk and Insurance Review from 2000 - 2021. His research has been funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Insurance Department, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Integrated Benefits Institute, and the Merck Foundation. John teaches an undergraduate course on the theoretical foundations of health insurance and a doctoral course on empirical strategies for business research.
Expertise
Health Economics, Risk and Insurance, Applied Microeconomics.
Education
PhD in Economics, Penn State University, 1997-01-01 MA in Economics, Penn State University, 1995-01-01 BA in Economics, Ursinus College, 1990-01-01
Courses Taught
BA 597 – Special Topics
Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently.
ECON 445 – Health Economics
Economic analysis of U.S. health care system; planning, organization, and financing; current public policy issues and alternatives.
H P A 445 – Health Economics
Economic analysis of U.S. health care system; planning, organization, and financing; current public policy issues and alternatives.
H P A 545 – Introduction to Health Economics
Survey of the application of economics to the roles of markets and government in health care.
H P A 564 – Research Methods in Health Services Research
Introduction to regression models in health services research, including violations and tests of model assumptions and solutions for those violations.
H P A 567 – Advanced Methods in Health Services Research II
Application of advanced methods to health services research topics focused on empirical approaches to causal inference in nonexperimental data.
H P A 590 – Colloquium
Introduction to the field of health services research.
H P A 596 – Individual Studies
Creative projects, including nonthesis research, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.
H P A 597A – Advanced Method Health Services Research II (A)
Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently.
H P A 597B – Quality Improvement in Health Care (B)
Advanced topics course focusing on causal inference in health services research.
HPA 564 – Research Meth Hsr
Development and critical analysis of a research proposal.
HPA 567 – Adv Methods Hsr II
Application of advanced methods to health services research topics focused on empirical approaches to causal inference in nonexperimental data.HPA 567 Advanced Methods in Health Services Research II (3) The main theme of the course will be estimating causal effects using non-experimental data in health services research. These general topics, and the associated estimation methods, often go by other names; in economics they are referred to as "identification strategies," while in other disciplines they are sometimes labeled "quasi-experimental research designs." Causal inference is one of the main issues to confront in conducting health services research. Devising empirical strategies that increase the likelihood that estimates have a causal interpretation is one of the primary objectives of health services researchers. The course will have a distinctively applied bent. The goal will be to survey as many estimation strategies as possible, with particular emphasis placed on those most commonly used by empirical researchers. The objectives will be to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches, the assumptions they require, and how they have been used in practice.
HPA 596 – Individual Studies
Creative projects, including nonthesis research, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.
RM 497 – Special Topics
Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest.
Honors and Awards
Robert C. Witt Research Award: Outstanding Feature Article in the Journal of Risk and Insurance, American Risk and Insurance Association, (2004-12-31)