News Release

May 22, 2009

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John Cochrane Joins the Cato Institute

University of Chicago economist John Cochrane has joined the Cato Institute as an adjunct scholar.

Cochrane has done pioneering work on health insurance markets, demonstrating how market innovation can solve the problems posed by costly, long-term illnesses better than government health insurance programs or insurance regulations. He is a leading authority on market analysis, having published papers on such topics as the volatility of exchange rates, the relationship between stock prices and business cycles, and the dynamics of bond prices.  His recent book, Asset Pricing, garnered TIAA-CREF Institute's Paul A. Samuelson Award for excellence in financial analysis. 

Earlier this year the Cato Institute published Cochrane's authoritative study "Health-Status Insurance: How Markets Can Provide Health Security," which explains how markets can make medicine better and health insurance more secure for patients with high-cost illnesses.

"John Cochrane's work on health-status insurance could hold the secret to fighting off the latest nationalized health care scheme," said Cato founder and president Ed Crane.

In addition to holding the Myron S. Scholes professorship at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Finance, Cochrane is a past dean of the university's economics department.  He is also a vice president of the American Finance Association, a research associate and past director of the asset pricing program of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a fellow of the Econometric Society.

"The Cato Institute does a tremendous job of promoting individual liberty and free markets," said Cochrane.  I am excited to contribute to the organization's efforts."

Cochrane earned his B.S. in physics from MIT, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

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