Yoko Ibuka - Appointed in AY2016
Participant Profile
Yoko Ibuka
Health EconomicsGraduated from the Faculty of Economics, Keio University Completed the master's program at the Graduate School of Economics, Keio University Received a Ph.D. from the Department of Economics, Rutgers University Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University School of Public Health Full-time Lecturer, School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University Program-Specific Associate Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University After serving as an associate professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Tohoku University, she has held her current position since 2016. *Profile and position are as of the time of the interview.
Yoko Ibuka
Health EconomicsGraduated from the Faculty of Economics, Keio University Completed the master's program at the Graduate School of Economics, Keio University Received a Ph.D. from the Department of Economics, Rutgers University Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University School of Public Health Full-time Lecturer, School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University Program-Specific Associate Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University After serving as an associate professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Tohoku University, she has held her current position since 2016. *Profile and position are as of the time of the interview.
Approach an Infinitely Vast World by Deepening Your Knowledge and Gaining Experience
My Research Theme and How I Encountered It
My theme is health economics. I began this research while enrolled in a graduate school in the United States, where I worked as a research assistant for a health economist on a project estimating the time spent on health investments, such as exercise and hospital visits. Although it was a major shift from my previous field of study, I was instantly captivated by the world of health economics. I saw the potential for economics to elucidate the determinants of human health and discovered the joy of analyzing data that exists as a result of individual behavior.
The Appeal and Fascination of My Research Theme
Economic activity and health are inextricably linked, both in the lives of individuals and for a nation as a whole. This is true not only in modern society; reading "The Great Escape" by Angus Deaton, the 2015 Nobel laureate, makes it clear that this relationship has universally existed even when considered over a long time span of several hundred years. In pursuit of the mechanisms behind this relationship between economic activity and health, my actual research uses data to analyze subdivided issues one by one, such as how health is affected in daily decision-making and, conversely, how socioeconomic factors influence health-related choices. The accumulation of small but solid results provides a basis for policy. Through such contributions, I hope to contribute to the improvement of the real-world society and economy.
A Message to Students
Your university years are a very important time for expanding your world. The world you see changes according to the breadth of your knowledge. Deepening your knowledge and training your thinking skills will broaden the world you can see. From another perspective, expanding your world can also be seen as the process of bringing yourself, as an individual, closer to the world. To that end, it is also important to increase the points of contact between yourself and the world through various experiences, thereby expanding your physical world. I hope to share with you all the joy of expanding this world through the field of academics.
(Interviewed in January 2017)