Paul Hutchinson, PhD

Paul Hutchinson, Ph.D. is a health economist specializing in econometric and economic evaluation methods for the evaluation of health and development programs. He has been involved with numerous program and impact evaluations and health system strengthening projects, including serving as the PI for two Gates-funded projects (the evaluation of the MTV Shuga family planning drama in Nigeria and an impact assessment of the SKY Girls youth anti-smoking program in Ghana), for an evaluation of the Vulnerable Group Development Program targeting poor, female-headed households in Bangladesh, for the External Evaluation of the Southern Africa Regional Social and Behavior Change Program, for the USAID-funded Northern Uganda Health Integration to Enhance Services Project (NU-HITES) and for the Private Sector Partnership-One Project. A new area of his research has been in the field of behavioral economics, where – through funding provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation – he has explored the theoretical underpinnings and use of behavioral economics in family planning and reproductive health. He has led the design and implementation of large-scale, population and reproductive health surveys in numerous countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa, Jordan, and Bangladesh. He has over 40 peer-reviewed publications in addition to numerous technical reports and book chapters. Prior to joining the faculty at Tulane, Hutchinson was a research associate at the Carolina Population Center (CPC) at the University of North Carolina. He has over 20 years of experience working with Ministries of Health, universities, USAID, and UN Agencies (World Bank, UNICEF) in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East.