About
Professor Joan Costa-Font (he/him) is a highly cited economist with broad training in the social sciences and a strong empirical focus, recognised for his work at the intersection of health, behavioural, and political economics. He leads the Ageing and Health Incentives Lab (AHIL) and co-leads the Perceptions of Inequality programme at International Inequalities Institute, and is a research fellow at IZA and CESifo, two leading global economics networks. He serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of the Economics of Ageing and Section Editor for PLOS Aging and Health. His policy and business engagement includes recent contributions to the WHO Global Report on Long-Term Care Financing (2023) and leadership of the LSE–Vitality programme on behavioural incentives for long-term health.
His research focuses on healthy ageing, long-term care financing, and the economic and behavioural determinants of health and preventive behaviours—including screenings, vaccination, sleep, exercise, alcohol use, and smoking. He also studies the social and political roots of health inequalities, such as the role of democratic institutions. Professor Costa-Font has published more than 150 articles in leading academic journals, including top field outlets like the Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, and Journal of Comparative Economics, as well as broader economics and science journals such as the Journal of the European Economic Association and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). He has authored and edited several books with Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press, including The Political Economy of Health and Health Care (2020) and Behavioural Incentive Design for Health Policy (2023).
PhD Supervision Areas:
- Healthy ageing and the later-life effects of economic policies
- Global financing and organisation of long-term care
- Political and behavioural drivers of health inequality
- Incentives for healthy habits and time use
Teaching
Coordinator of the LSE Health Policy -Tsinghua
University program
HP429 Behavioral Incentives in Health and Health Care
HP433 Health Care Regulation
HP4D6E Behavioural Insights for Health Incentive Design
HP500 Advanced Health Policy and Economics
Affiliations
Fellow, CESifo Munich
Fellow, IZA Bonn
Affiliate, Medication Outcomes Centre, University of California San Francisco
Follow me
Bluesky: @jcosta-font.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/jcosta-font.bsky.social)
Expertise
Ageing, Long Term Care, Behavioural Incentives, Health Inequality, Health Behaviours, Overweight, Sleep, Nutrition, Smoking, Alcohol, Institutional Reforms and Health Disadvantage, Family Health Behaviours, Gender and Health
Publications
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