Evans, Robert G.

Robert G. Evans is a leading Canadian health economist. His comparative studies of healthcare systems and funding strategies have greatly influenced the Canadian federal and provincial governments. He also has served as a consultant to many governments and public agencies in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific.

Evans is a senior faculty member and professor of economics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Evans is a fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He was previously the director of the Institute's Population Health Program from 1987 to 1997.

Born in 1942, Evans earned a bachelor's degree in political economy from the University of Toronto and a doctorate degree in economics from Harvard University. While in graduate school, Evans was a research staff member of the Ontario Committee on Taxation (the summers of 1964 and 1965) and [Page 385]at the Bank of Canada (the summers of 1966 and 1967). He returned to the Ontario Committee on Taxation in 1967 and the Bank of Canada in 1968 on a part-time basis. He also worked part-time at the Ontario Hospital Services Commission in 1969. After graduating from Harvard, Evans became an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. He quickly rose through the academic ranks of the university, becoming associate professor in 1973 and professor in 1978.

Throughout his career, Evans has served on the boards of numerous healthcare, research, and policy organizations. He was the president of the Canadian Health Economics Research Association; member of the National Health Research and Development Program, Main Advisory Committee; member of the expert advisory panel on National Health Expenditures, Canadian Institute of Health Information; member of the Commonwealth Fund Commission on Elderly People Living Alone; member of the executive board of directors of the International Health Economics Association (iHEA); and board member of the Association for Health Services Research (now AcademyHealth).

Evans has authored or coauthored more than 230 scholarly articles and books. Two of his books are considered classics: Strained Mercy: The Economics of Canadian Health Care and Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? The Determinants of Health of Populations. He is a frequent commentator in the journal Healthcare Policy. And he serves on the editorial boards of Annals of Internal Medicine, International Journal of Technology Assessment, ISUMA Canadian Journal of Policy Research, Journal of Health Economics, and Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

Evans has received many awards and honors in recognition of his work. He is an honorary life member of the Canadian College of Health Services Executives and the Canadian Health Economics Research Association, and he is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance in the United States. He also was a member of the British Columbia Royal Commission on Health Care and Costs in 1990, and the National Forum on Health from 1994 to 1997. He was awarded the Baxter International Health Services Research Prize in 2001 by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA). In 2002, he also received the Health Services Research Advancement Award from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF).

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