Professor Mark Duggan is the Director of the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, with a cross-appointment in the Department of Economics. Mark received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1992 and 1994, respectively, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1999. Before joining the University of Toronto, he was a faculty member at Stanford University (2014–2026), the University of Pennsylvania (2011–2014), the University of Maryland (2003–2011), and the University of Chicago (1999–2003).

The first strand of Mark’s research focuses on the economics of the health care sector, particularly the pharmaceutical, hospital, and health insurance industries. The second examines the impact of large-scale government expenditure programs that provide retirement, health care, disability, and unemployment insurance benefits. His current research projects investigate the causes and consequences of homelessness and the impact of artificial intelligence on the health care sector.

His research has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The Economist, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Social Security Administration, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Mark was the 2010 recipient of the ASHEcon Medal, awarded every two years by the American Society of Health Economists to the U.S. economist aged 40 or under who has made the most significant contributions to the field of health economics. Along with his co-author Fiona Scott Morton, he received the National Institute for Health Care Management’s 2011 Health Care Research Award for their work on Medicare Part D. He was previously a Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has also testified about his academic research before the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Budget Committee.

From 2009 to 2010, Mark served as the Senior Economist for Health Care Policy at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. From 2015 to 2024, he served as Director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. During his academic career, he has taught thousands of undergraduate and graduate students and advised more than 60 Ph.D. students. He has received teaching and/or advising awards at MIT, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, the University of Maryland, and Stanford University. He received the Stanford Economics Department’s Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award in 2022 and Stanford’s Miriam Aaron Roland Volunteer Service Prize in 2025.

In early 2027, Mark will teach a new undergraduate course, “Economic Policy in the Industrialized World,” at the University of Toronto. The course will explore the formidable challenges and exciting opportunities for policymakers at every level of government in Canada, the United States, and beyond.