Mario Macis

My main focus is on understanding the factors that influence people's support for markets and market-based solutions to social problems, attitudes toward regulation and technology, and the impact of these elements on economic and social outcomes. This includes a strong interest in exploring how incentives, social norms, and moral values shape individual choices and societal policies.

My work contributes to the fields of health, labor, development, market design, and managerial economics.

Although my research is primarily in economics, much of my work is interdisciplinary. I published in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Health Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, Management Science, Sociological Science, and Science. My research was mentioned in prominent media outlets including The Economist, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Financial Times.

I conducted field- and survey-based experimental studies to examine the effect of economic incentives and social norms on blood donation — a critical approach aimed at addressing the severe shortages of this life-saving resource. I also explored attitudes about providing compensation to organ donors, a potential strategy to mitigate the dire organ shortage crisis. My research also analyzed people's reactions to price surges and price controls, notably in the context of emergencies. Additionally, I studied the effects of firms' exporting on workers’ wages, the impact of female CEOs on gender wage inequality, the effect of unemployment benefits on job reallocation, the adoption of efficient management practices in health care, and the effects of incentivized peer referrals to improve the detection of infectious diseases — each with its own potential to contribute to societal well-being and address pressing health and economic issues.

Currently, I am studying the determinants and consequences of Americans' trust (or lack thereof) in the health care system, attitudes about human enhancement technologies and AI, the determinants of decision-making at the end of life, and market design solutions for ethical and efficient biobanking. These research endeavors are meant to shape policies and practices that promote welfare-enhancing solutions aligned with public values and ethical standards in an increasingly technology-driven world.

** Research on the COVID-19 pandemic response **: I co-authored studies on expectations about the duration of lockdowns and people’s compliance, people’s reactions to price surges of essential goods, and the effect of social networks on the adoption of preventative behaviors, and compliance with social distancing measures . I also co-organized inter-disciplinary webinars and a joint JHU-LSE online conference on behavioral economics and covid-19 to foster conversations and exchanges of ideas and contribute to informing policymakers.**

I teach courses in microeconomics , behavioral economics, strategic human capital, health economics, and applied behavioral strategy for organizational and societal impact.

I enjoy organizing and moderating webinars on current issues in health markets and policy.

I have been a consultant for the World Bank, the International Labor Organization, the National Marrow Donor Program, the United Nations Development Program, and the World Health Organization.

I recently served on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee on A Fairier and More Equitable, Cost-Effective, and Transparent System of Donor Organ Procurement, Allocation, and Distribution. The committee released a report, available here. I also contributed to a United Nations report on the social and economic impact of the Zika virus.

I am a member of the Editorial Board of the Italian Economic Journal.

I write Op-eds for La Nuova Sardegna, articles for ECO, mainly on the economics of health, and, occasionally, contributions to La Voce (in Italian), ProMarket (University of Chicago - Stigler Center), VoxDev, and VoxEU (CEPR).

Before joining Hopkins, I was a faculty member at the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. I received my PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago, Department of Economics, and my Laurea in Economics and Social Disciplines (DES) from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.