Robin L. McKnight Named Winner of John Heinz Dissertation Award

For Immediate Release:  January 22, 2004
Contact:  Jill C. Braunstein at (202) 452-8097 or jillbraun@nasi.org

Washington, DC—The National Academy of Social Insurance is pleased to announce Robin L. McKnight as winner of the twelfth annual John Heinz Dissertation Award. Ms. McKnight wrote her dissertation, “Essays on the Economics of Health Insurance,” while an economics doctoral student at MIT. Ms. McKnight’s dissertation was nominated for the award by NASI member Jonathan Gruber.

The award, which includes a $1,000 prize, will be presented during the National Academy of Social Insurance’s 16th Annual Conference on January 22–23, 2004, in Washington, DC. Academy President Jerry Mashaw of Yale University and Award Committee Chair Robert Hudson of Boston University will make the award presentation. The Teresa and John Heinz Fund of the Heinz Family Foundation supports the award.

An honorable mention was awarded to Jill Rachel Horwitz, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, for her dissertation, “Corporate Form of Hospitals: Behavior and Obligations.” Horwitz wrote her dissertation while in the Ph.D. program in Health Policy at Harvard University. Ms. Horwitz’s dissertation was nominated for the award by NASI member David Cutler.

The John Heinz Dissertation Award is issued in honor of Senator John Heinz. As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, he helped chart the Social Security rescue effort in 1983 and worked tirelessly to insulate the Social Security Trust Funds from the rest of the Federal budget. John Heinz was a leading expert in the Senate on private pensions, and health care and aging policy and was a member of the Academy’s Board of Advisors from the organization’s inception in 1986. Robert M. Ball, Founding Chair, said, “John Heinz was a leading proponent of Social Security with a true appreciation of the value of social insurance principles in developing public policy. He was a true supporter of the National Academy of Social Insurance and contributed importantly to its objectives. We are privileged to award this prize in his honor.”

To obtain application forms and additional information, contact Terry Nixon at the National Academy of Social Insurance, 1776 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 615, Washington, DC 20036-1904, (202) 452-8097, or by email: nasi@nasi.org.

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The National Academy of Social Insurance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance. Its mission is to promote understanding and informed policymaking on social insurance and related programs through research, public education, training, and the open exchange of ideas.