Biography
Peter Muennig is a Professor at Columbia University’s Department of Health Policy and Management. He uses RCTs and other causal methods to study the social determinants of health from a health policy lens, a career trajectory that won him tenure at a young age. His work spans broad areas of non-medical health policy, linking RCTs with cost-effectiveness analyses to determine the best mix of social policies for optimizing population health. For example, he has worked with MDRC on an RCT of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and an RCT on conditional cash transfers. He has worked on reduced class size, pre-kindergarten programs, lead abatement programs, welfare reform, transportation policies, and health insurance. He has been the PI on multiple NIH grants, has received $16 million in funding, and has published over 150 articles in leading journals.
Topics
Education
Editorial Boards
Other Affiliations
American Public Health Association, 1996-Present
Society for Medical Decision Making, 2001-Present
Transportation Alternatives, 2006-Present
Honors & Awards
Hanwang Initiative Health Panel, 2012
Health Affairs most read article, 2010
Glenda Garvey Teaching Academy, 2010
ASPH/Pfizer Early Career in Public Health Teaching Award, 2008
Academy of Distinguished Teachers, 2008
Areas of Expertise
Select Urban Health Activities
Immigrant Health : I conduct a wide array of research focused on understanding the health needs of immigrant populations to New York and to the United States. Immigrants constitute about 40% of the New York population, so New York serves as one laboratory for understanding why immigrants are healthier than the average native-born American.
Opportunity NYC: I served as a consultant to MDRC, the organization charged with the evaluation of Opportunity NYC.
Why is New York City Healthier than others?: I am engaged in a study exploring the contributions of immigration, gentrification, and social polices to the health of NYC residents that might explain the large gains in life expectancy seen in the city over the past 2 decades.
Select Global Activities
Burmese Refugee Project (now Kwah Dao), Thailand: We seek to afford stateless children the opportunity to obtain a high quality education and lead healthy and productive lives. We do so via schooling, sanitation, vaccination, and clean water initiatives. We also run a Montessori school. Please see http://kwahdao.org for more information.
Banyan Center, Thailand: http://kwahdao.org/our-work/banyan-center/
Select Publications
Muennig P. Can universal pre-kindergarten programs improve population health and longevity? Mechanisms, evidence, and policy implications. Social Science and Medicine. 2015;127:116-23.
Muennig P, Caleyachetty R, Rosen Z, Korotzer A. More money, fewer lives: the cost effectiveness of welfare reform in the United States. American Journal of Public Health. 2015 Feb;105(2):324-8.
Muennig PA, Epstein M, Li G, DiMaggio C. The Cost-Effectiveness of New York City's Safe Routes to School Program. American Journal of Public Health. 2014;104(7):1294-9.
Muennig P, Finn, J. Johnson G, Wilde ET. The effect of small class sizes on mortality through age 29: evidence from a multi-center randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2011;173(12):1468-74.
Muennig P, Rosen Z, Wilde ET. Welfare programs that target workforce participation may negatively impact mortality. Health Affairs. 2013;32(6).
Muennig P The social costs of childhood lead exposure in the post-lead regulation era. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 2009;163(9): 844-849
Muennig P, Robertson D, Johnson G, Campbell F, Pungello E, Neidel M. The effect of an early education program on adult health: the Carolina Abecedarian Project randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Public Health. 2011;(3):512-6.
Muennig P, Glied SA. What changes in survival rates tell us about U.S. health care. Health Affairs 2010;29(11):2105-13.
Muennig P, Fiscella K, Tancredi D, Franks, P. The Relative Health Burden of Selected Social and Behavioral Risk Factors in the United States: Implications for Policy. American Journal of Public Health. 2010; 100: 1758-1764.
Muennig P Designing and Conducting Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Health and Medicine Jossey-Bass San Francisco, CA 2002
Muennig P, Pallin D, Sell R, Chan, MS The cost effectiveness of strategies for the treatment of intestinal parasites in immigrants New England Journal of Medicine 340 773-779 1999
Muennig P, Franks P, Gold MR. The cost-effectiveness of health insurance American Journal of Preventive Medicine 28 59-64 2005
Muennig P, Franks P, Lubetkin E, Jia H, Gold MR. The burden of disease due to income Social Science and Medicine 2005