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Hi! Welcome to my page! 

I am a principal health economist at Boston Scientific. 

Previously I was a postdoc researcher at National University of Singapore (2015-2016), a junior professional officer at the World Bank (Poverty Global Practice, Africa region) (2016-2018), and a research associate at Department of Global Health and Population and at Center for Health Decision Science at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2018-2023). 

I am a development / health economist, interested in health behavioral changes and health outcome improvement in cost-effective ways, in developing countries. I received Ph.D. in Economics from University of Michigan in 2015. 

My research focuses on three main areas:  

[1] Evaluation of interventions to induce health behavioral changes through rigorous causal studies such as randomized controlled trials

[2] Investigation of determinants of health outcomes and disparities, mainly using secondary data

[3] Cost analysis and Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of health interventions and policies

I approach research questions using field experiments and rigorous analytical skills. I have experiences in conducting multiple randomized controlled trials in Nigeria, Uganda, and Singapore. These field studies have addressed important health behavioral issues such as monetary and psychological (e.g. fear of needles, concerns about side effects) barriers to vaccination, information barrier to vaccination/antenatal care/family planning, and incentive mechanisms for weight loss. 

I have used secondary data to evaluate factors influencing health behaviors and outcomes (vaccination, antenatal care, institutional delivery, mortality etc), such as access to health facilities, armed conflicts, and vaccine stockouts, mainly in African countries. Many of my research identify the causal effect of health policy in Nigeria; such as performance-based financing and Vaccine Direct Delivery (VDD).    

Finally, I conduct CEA including data collection for it; I have conducted cost analysis for family planning project in Pakistan, and have done the data collection for costing for a malnutrition project in Niger. 

You can find my Google Scholar page here.

Contact Information: 

ryokos1226@gmail.com