Heather Royer

Heather Royer is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), with affiliations at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). Her research focuses on Health Economics, Public Economics, and Labor Economics, emphasizing causal disentanglement of social determinants of health and randomized controlled trials to improve population health behaviors. She holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley (2004) and a B.A. from Pomona College (1996).

Royer has authored numerous influential studies, including analyses of parental leave policies, healthcare centralization impacts, and the effects of education on fertility and health outcomes. Her work has been recognized with prestigious awards such as the UCSB Distinguished Teaching Award (2019) and the Excellence in Refereeing Awards from the American Economic Review (2019) and American Economic Association (2012). She has secured grants from NIH, NSF, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, totaling over $2 million in funding.

Royer advises multiple graduate students and has served as an Associate Editor for Journal of Health Economics and Journal of Human Resources. Her research extends to policy-relevant topics like abortion access, health incentives, and educational reforms. She is affiliated with UCSB’s Center for Aging and Longevity Studies (CALS) and has contributed to interdisciplinary initiatives such as the California Policy Lab. Her teaching spans econometrics, health economics, and labor economics at both undergraduate and graduate levels.