Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Michael R. Reich is a political scientist whose research addresses the political dimensions of public health policy, including health system strengthening and reform, access to medicines and pharmaceutical policy, and the political economy of the policy-making process. His articles on the political economy of health policy include papers on the politics of the sugar-sweetened beverage tax in Mexico, the political economy of noncommunicable diseases, the political economy of health policy implementation, a guide to applied political economy analysis for health reform, the political economy of nutrition policy, and other topics. Dr. Reich has worked on the analysis of health systems with colleagues at Harvard for over three decades and is co-author of the landmark book on health systems, Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide to Improving Performance and Equity (by M.J. Roberts, W. Hsiao, P. Berman, and M.R. Reich, Oxford, 2004). He is founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health Systems & Reform, whose first issue was published in January 2015. He helped to establish the Takemi Program in International Health at Harvard in 1983, and has served as the Director of the Takemi Program since 1988.

Dr. Reich has been engaged with health policy issues in Japan for five decades. On April 29, 2015, the government of Japan presented him with the award of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, for his outstanding contributions to the promotion of Japan's policy for global public health as well as for advancing public health in Japan. In November 2016, Dr. Reich received the Award for Lifetime Service to the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research from the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and from Health Systems Global.

During academic year 2024-25, Dr. Reich is teaching GHP 200, Doing Health Reform Better, in Fall 1 period. The syllabus for the 2023 course is available here: https://michaelrreich.com/harvard-courses.

Dr. Reich obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science at Yale University in 1981, after receiving his B.A. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and M.A. in East Asian Studies, both also at Yale.