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Timothy Classen

Associate Professor; Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Academic Affairs

Professor Classen’s research focuses on economic causes and consequences of deleterious health behaviors such as obesity, suicide, and drug abuse. He has published research on the intergenerational transmission of obesity and subsequent correlations in human capital investments over time within families as well as the relationship of job loss and durations of unemployment to fluctuations in suicide rates.  He is currently studying the effects of states’ Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs on rates of overdoses from opiate painkillers.

Dr. Classen was awarded the Quinlan Faculty Service Award in 2014 and Outstanding Teacher of the Year for Undergraduate Programs at Quinlan in 2016.  He seeks to engender in students and colleagues an understanding of how Loyola’s mission to promote and foster social justice can be realized through improving health disparities in both the U.S. and foreign health care systems.

Education

  • PhD Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, December 2006
  • MA Economics, University of Chicago, 1997
  • BA Mathematics and Economics, Macalester College, 1996

Research Interests

  • Health Economics
  • Microeconomics
  • Econometrics

Professional/Community Affiliations

  • American Economic Association
  • International Health Economics Association
  • American Society of Health Economists

Courses Taught

  • ECON 201. Introduction to Microeconomics
  • ECON 329. Health Economics
  • ECON 346. Introduction to Econometrics
  • HCMT 502. Health Care Economics

Publications/Research Listings

Classen, T. J. (2017). Changes Over Time in the Relationship of Obesity to Education Accumulation. Eastern Economic Journal, 43(3), 496-519.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41302-016-0079-5

Classen, T. J., Ali, M., Mutter, R., Dowd, W., Novak, S. (2017). Prescription drug monitoring programs, nonmedical use of prescription drugs, and heroin use: Evidence from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health. Addictive Behaviors, vol. 69, 65-77

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030646031730014X

Classen, T.J. and O. Thompson "Genes and the intergenerational transmission of BMI and obesity," Economics and Human Biology, 23.1, (2016) 121-133.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X1630106X

Classen, T.J., R.A. Dunn. "The effect of job loss and unemployment duration on suicide risk in the United States: a new look using mass-layoffs and unemployment duration." Health Economics, 21.3 (2012). 338-350

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hec.1719/abstract

Classen, T.J., R.A. Dunn. "Suicide, social integration and fertility rates." Applied Economics Letters. 18.11 (2011). 1011-1014

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504851.2010.520668

Classen, T.J. "Measures of the intergenerational transmission of body mass index between mothers and their children in the United States, 1981-2004." Economics and Human Biology. 8.1 (2010). 30-43.  

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1570677X

Classen, T.J. "The Politics of Hope and Despair: The Effect of Presidential Election Outcomes on Suicide Rates." Social Science Quarterly. (2009).  

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00709.x

Classen, T.J., C. Hokayem. "Childhood Influences on Youth Obesity." Economics and Human Biology. 3.2 (2005). 165-187.  

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X0500033X

Presentation of Refereed Papers 

“The ACA Dependent Coverage Expansion of 2010 and Rates of Suicide Among Young Adults” presented at Annual Conference of the American Society of Health Economists, Washington, DC, June 2019

“Surviving the Great Recession: Suicides During an Economic Downturn,” presented at Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association, Vancouver, BC, June 2018

“Surviving the Great Recession: Suicides During an Economic Downturn,”Annual Meetings of the American Economic Association, Chicago, IL, January 2017

“Effects of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs to Reduce Rates of Fatal Overdoses from Prescription Opioid Pain Medications”Annual Conference, Western Economic Association Intl, Portland, OR, July 2016

Ruth K. Palmer Symposium, Niehoff School of Nursing, Maywood, IL, April 2016

Midwest Economics Association, Annual Meetings, Evanston, IL, April 2016

Intl. Health Econ. Assoc., 11th World Congress, Milan, Italy July 2015

“Effects of Obesity Across the Distribution of Earnings for Young Women”American Society of Health Economists, Biennial Conference, Los Angeles, July 2014

Annual Conference, Western Economic Association International, Denver, CO, July 2014

“Back to work, back to health: Spending on services for dislocated workers and suicide risk,”American Society of Health Economists, Biennial Conference, Minneapolis, June 2012.