About
Professor Joan Costa-Font (he/him) is a highly cited economist with broad training in the social sciences, recognised for his work at the intersection of health and behavioural economics and political economy. He leads the Ageing and Health Incentives Lab (AHIL) and co-leads the Perceptions of Inequality programme at the International Inequalities Institute and Ageing@LSE. He is affiliated as 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 (Social, Economic & Environmental Determinants of Health) for PLOS Aging and Health. His policy and business engagement includes drafting the WHO Global Report on Long-Term Care Financing (2023), serving as a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Economics for Environment, Climate Change and Health (WHO TAG-EconECH) and being the team leader of the LSE–Vitality programme on behavioural incentives for long-term health.
His research focuses on the economics of healthy ageing and health disadvantage - including its socio-economic and political roots, long-term care financing, and the economic and behavioural determinants of health and preventive behaviours—including screenings, vaccination, sleep, exercise, alcohol use, and smoking. Professor Costa-Font has published major contributions in leading academic top field journals (e.g., Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, and Journal of Comparative Economics), as well as general interest journals in economics and science (e.g., European Economic Association and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science). 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, economic and behavioural drivers of health inequality
- Incentives for and constraints on 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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