Jan Boone

Jan Boone is a Full Professor of Economics at Tilburg University, affiliated with the Tilburg School of Economics and Management (TiSEM) and the Department of Economics. He specializes in competition and regulation in health care markets, with a focus on health insurance design, cost-sharing mechanisms, and procurement policies. Boone holds a PhD from Nuffield College, Oxford University, and has held academic positions at Tilburg since 1997. His research has been recognized with prestigious grants, including the Vici and Vidi awards, and he has served as Head of the Department of Economics.

Education:

• Bachelor's (Erasmus University Rotterdam, 1987-1993)
• PhD (Oxford University, Nuffield College, 1993-1997)

Research Interests: Boone's work addresses critical issues in health economics, including the design of health insurance systems to balance cost, access, and equity. He analyzes how cost-sharing mechanisms like rebates and deductibles affect healthcare utilization, particularly among income groups. His recent projects include modeling the impact of deductibles on health expenditures and exploring procurement mechanisms for specialized firms. His findings often highlight practical implications for policy, such as the welfare effects of liquidity constraints in cost-sharing designs.

Key Contributions: Boone has contributed to understanding the complementarity between risk adjustment and community rating in health insurance markets, demonstrating how market distortions can facilitate redistributive policies. His work on health provider networks challenges assumptions about narrow network under-treatment and emphasizes contractual dynamics between insurers and providers. He also investigates optimal policies for regulating healthcare markets to improve efficiency and equity.

Awards: Boone has been honored with the Ruigrok Prijs (2001), a Royal Economic Society Junior Fellowship (1996-1997), and a Rhodes European Scholarship (1993-1996). His research has been cited in policy analyses and media outlets like the New Scientist and Volkskrant.

Teaching and Outreach: Boone teaches courses on Python programming for economics, data science, and competition policy. He actively contributes to open-source tools, advocating for Emacs and Org-mode in academic workflows. His blog discusses topics ranging from econometric methods to software configuration for economists.

Professional Roles: He serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Health Economics, advises the Dutch National Health Authority (NMa), and contributes to policy evaluations through roles like the NVAO accreditation committee. Boone's research extends to industrial organization, with studies on collusion, procurement auctions, and innovation dynamics.