Kathy and me at the top of Paint Brush Divide in the Grand Tetons.

Frank Levy 

flevy@mit.edu

Phone: 617-2530-2089

Fax: 617-258-8594

I am Daniel Rose Professor of Urban Economics in the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP). 

My current work focuses on the problem of defining and restraining unnecessary medical imaging - a part of "Bending the Curve" of rising medical costs. "The End of the Imaging Boom?", co-authored with David Lee of GE Healthcare, documents the way in which policy has mananaged to slow the growth of imaging utilization. The paper will be posted shortly. Three other papers on the economics of radiology can be downloaded below.

Other research examines the ways that computer technology and offshoring are reshaping opportunities in the labor market. The work is summarized in this working paper and in The New Division of Labor: How Computers are Creating the Next Job Market  , (Princeton University Press, paperback edition 2005). Both the chapter and the book are co-authored with Richard J. Murnane.

I also do research on U.S. income inequality and living standards and the economics of education. My 2007 paper with Peter Temin, "Inequality and Institutions in 20'th Century America" can be downloaded at no charge from SSRN by clicking this title. I presented a short version of this work in the first Bernie Saffran Memorial Lecture, delivered at Swarthmore College, November 15, 2007.

Teaching the New Basic Skills (with Richard J. Murnane) (1996) examines  the growing mismatch between what K-12 schools teach and what employers require and case studies of schools who have worked to close that gap.

At MIT, I teach the microeconomics course directed at students in our Masters of City Planning program. I also teach an undergraduate course on the Economics of Education - the reading list for the 2010 version appears below.

I live in Newton, Massachusetts with my wife, Kathy Swartz, a Professor of Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. Our son, Dave, works on financial modeling and project finance for an energy firm. Our daughter, Marin, teaches at a law school.  

Working Papers on Radiology.

Computers, Conversation, Utilization and Commoditization (The 2008 Herb Abrams Lecturure). The American Journal of Roentology, May 2009 (PDF)

Computers and the Supply of Radiology Services: The Anatomy of a Disruptive Technology. Journal of the American College of Radiology, October 2008. (PDF)

Offshoring Radiology Services to India. Frank Levy and Kyoung-Hee Yu. (a somewhat different version of this paper was publshed in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, December 2010)(PDF)

Reading List for my Undergraduate Course on the Economics of Education [Spring 2011] (PDF)

(website updated 8/25/11)