Heidi Williams

Heidi Williams is the Orvil E. Dryfoos Professor in Economics and Public Affairs and Professor of Economics in Business & Economics at Dartmouth College. She received her AB in mathematics from Dartmouth College in 2003 as a Rhodes Scholar and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, an MSc in development economics from the University of Oxford in 2004, and a PhD in economics from Harvard University in 2010. Williams previously served as Charles R. Schwab Professor of Economics at Stanford University from 2019 to 2023, Professor of Economics at Stanford by courtesy in the Law School, Trione Visiting Associate Professor at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and held various tenured and tenure-track positions at MIT Department of Economics from 2011 to 2019, including Class of 1957 Career Development Professor. Earlier roles include Visiting Fellow in Aging Research at NBER and Research Assistant at NBER. She is a Research Associate at the NBER, Director of Science Policy at the Institute for Progress, nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and research advisor to the Congressional Budget Office.

Williams' research focuses on how policy changes affect innovation, productivity, and economic growth, with emphasis on technological change in health care markets, innovation policy, intellectual property rights, health economics, and economic aspects of biomedical research. Her influential publications include 'Representation and Extrapolation: Evidence from Clinical Trials' (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2024, with Marcella Alsan et al., Arrow Award 2024), 'Who Profits from Patents? Rent-Sharing at Innovative Firms' (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2019, with Patrick Kline et al.), 'How Do Patents Affect Follow-On Innovation? Evidence from the Human Genome' (American Economic Review, 2019, with Bhaven Sampat), 'Do Firms Underinvest in Long-Term Research? Evidence from Cancer Clinical Trials' (American Economic Review, 2015, with Eric Budish and Benjamin Roin, Arrow Award 2016), and 'Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome' (Journal of Political Economy, 2013). She has received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2015), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2015), ASHEcon Medal (2021), Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023), Fellowship of the Econometric Society (2020), and multiple teaching awards at MIT. Williams is Editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives since 2021, co-editor from 2019 to 2020, and has held various editorial roles including at American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and Review of Economics and Statistics. Her scholarship has shaped policy discussions on innovation incentives and health care markets.

Professional Email: Heidi.Lie.Williams@dartmouth.edu