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Grignon Michel, Professor | Department Chair of the Department of Health, Aging & Society | Associate Scientist of Institut de Recherche et Documentation en Èconomie de la Santé | Editor-in-chief of Health Reform Observer - Observatoire des Réformes de Santé

photo of Michel Grignon

Michel Grignon

Professor | Department Chair of the Department of Health, Aging & Society | Associate Scientist of Institut de Recherche et Documentation en Èconomie de la Santé | Editor-in-chief of Health Reform Observer - Observatoire des Réformes de Santé

Faculty
Department of Economics

Faculty
Department of Health Aging & Society

Area(s) of Interest:

Biography

Health economist

Efficiency and equity are often presented as opposing forces in Canada’s healthcare system. Serving more people better just intuitively seems as though it would cost more.

But health economist Michel Grignon has found in his research that healthcare equity can actually increase efficiency by allocating resources more effectively to where they’re needed.

Through his research, Grignon tries to answer questions about how, exactly, to measure equity, and also how to measure health itself.

Working with colleagues at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, he’s exploring how to assess health and provide healthcare among older people comparing Canada’s aging population with countries like Japan, whose population is even older. These issues are urgent not just because older people tend to get sick more often, but also because the nature of those illnesses are different. Currently, Canada’s healthcare system – like almost every other country – is constructed to serve acute conditions. Someone gets sick or injured, sees a doctor or nurse for treatment, and is released.

Older people, though, are more likely to have permanent chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis and asthma. A healthcare system looks very different when a large percentage of the population it serves will never return to full health.

In addition to publishing in traditional academic journals, Grignon also serves as a public commentator on issues of aging and health equity, and is helping Canadian policymakers improve how they serve our aging population.

Education

Ph.D. Ecole des Hautes Etudies en Science Sociales 1993

MA, École Nationale de la Satistique et de l'Administration Économique, 1986

Teaching

ECON 3Q03- Economics of Aging- Fall 2015

ECON 710- Fall 2015

Research

Selected Publications


Book chapters

Grignon, M., Access and health insurance, Encyclopedia of Health Insurance (A.J. Culyer, editor), Elsevier (Amsterdam), forthcoming.

Grignon, M., Owusu, Y., and Sweetman, A. (2013), The International Migration of Health Professionals, International Handbook on the Economics of Migration (Klaus F. Zimmerman and Amélie F. Constant, editors), Edward Elgar(Cheltenham UK), Chapter 4: 75-97.

Journal Articles

Bourgeault, I and M. Grignon, (2013) A comparison of cross-professional boundaries in OECD countries, European Journal of Comparative Economics, 10(2): 199-223

Roham, Mehrdad, Anait R. Gabrielyan, Norman P. Archer, Michel Grignon, and Byron G. Spencer, (2013) The impact of technological intensity of service provision on physician expenditures: an exploratory investigation, Health Economics, Article first published online : 14 AUG 2013, DOI: 10.1002/hec.2979.

Longo, C., Grignon, M., (2012) The value of fixed reimbursement insurance against cancer related losses: Simulations to investigate state dependent utility. Global Business and Economics Review, 14(4): 322-337

Grignon, M. (2012) A Democratic Responsiveness Approach to Real Reform: An Exploration of Health Care Systems' Resilience Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 37(4): 665-676; published ahead of print March 30, 2012, doi:10.1215/03616878-1597475

Grignon M., Spencer B.G., Wang L., Is There an Age Pattern in the Treatment of AMI? Evidence from Ontario, (2010) Canadian Journal on Aging/Revue canadienne du vieillissement, 29(3): 317-332.

Grignon M., Hurley J., Wang L., Allin S., Inequity in a market-based health system: Evidence from Canada's dental sector, (2010) Health Policy, DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2010.05.018

Allin, S., Grignon, M., Le Grand J., Subjective Unmet Need and Utilization of Health Care services in Canada: What are the Equity Implications? (2010) Social Science and Medicine, 70(3) 2010: 465-472

Grignon, M., An empirical investigation of heterogeneity in time preferences and smoking behaviours, (2009) Journal of Socio-Economics, 38: 739-751

Grignon, M. Pourquoi les systèmes de santé sont ils organisés différemment? (2009) Revue Economique 60(2): 545-558

Grignon, M. Le système de santé au Canada, (2008) Revue Française des Affaires Sociales 62(4): 67-87

Jusot, F., Grignon, M., Dourgnon, P., (2008) Access to psycho-social resources and health: exploratory findings from a survey of the French population, Health Economics Policy and Law, 3: 365-391

Grignon, M., The role of education in health system performance (2008), Economics of Education Review, 27: 299-307

Grignon, M., Perronnin, M., Lavis, J., Does free supp