Professor Carol Propper has been made a Dame in the New Year’s Honours for her contribution to economics and public health.

Professor Dame Carol Propper is a Chair in Economics at Imperial College Business School. Her research has focused on how to improve the quality of healthcare and the link between economic circumstances and health. As one of the UK’s leading health economists, her work has shown that competition between hospitals improves the managerial quality in the NHS.  

Dame Carol's current research examines the impact of CEOs in the NHS on hospital performance. Her work also addresses issues such as hospital waiting times, the challenges of centralised pay including nurses’ pay, the struggle to recruit and retain healthcare workers in hospitals in high cost areas such as London and the South East and the impact of recessions on long term health conditions.

Dame Carol has supported the economics community, and been a key voice on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the NHS, since the start of the crisis. Her recent papers have addressed a number of issues including the economic costs of lockdown, spending needs relating to healthcare and the coronavirus and the future of the NHS after the pandemic.

In her public life, Dame Carol has championed the need for greater diversity among the economics community. In her role as President of the Royal Economic Society, she inititated a recent report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies which showed that black economists are 64 percent less likely to work for Russell Group universities than their white peers.  She is a Fellow of the British Academy, the US National Academy of Medicine, the Centre for Economics Policy Research and a member of President Macron of France’s expert commission on major economic challenges.

"I’ve long championed the applicability of economics to healthcare and have enjoyed many collaborations with researchers from both inside and outside economics as we try to solve complex issues in this field." Professor Dame Carol Propper Chair in Economics, Business School

Reacting to the news of being made a Dame she said: “I am thrilled to have been awarded a DBE for my contribution to Economics and Public Health. Much of my research career has been focused on understanding how people and organisations respond to incentives in the field of healthcare.

I’ve long championed the applicability of economics to healthcare and have enjoyed many collaborations with researchers from both inside and outside economics as we try to solve complex issues in this field. I have also been privileged to be able to work with wonderful colleagues in the Royal Economic Society, the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Centre for Economics Policy Research to promote social sciences in Britain and worldwide and to support greater diversity in academia.”

Professor Francisco Veloso, Dean of Imperial College Business School said: “Many congratulations to Carol for this prestigious honour. As a world-leading health economist, Carol brings a wealth of experience and research excellence to the Business School and we are delighted and very proud to have her among our faculty.”