Rate My Professor David Molitor

Molitor's research focuses on health economics, environmental economics, and labor economics, with emphasis on air pollution effects, temperature adaptation, workplace wellness programs, physician practice styles, and the causal effects of place on health and longevity. As Principal Investigator of the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study, a large-scale field experiment, his research program has received over $10 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Social Security Administration, J-PAL North America, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Key publications include 'The Mortality and Medical Costs of Air Pollution: Evidence from Changes in Wind Direction' (American Economic Review, 2019, with Deryugina, Heutel, Miller, and Reif), winner of the Kenneth J. Arrow Award for best paper in health economics; 'What Do Workplace Wellness Programs Do? Evidence from the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study' (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2019, with Jones and Reif), recipient of the NIHCM Foundation Research Award; 'Does When You Die Depend on Where You Live? Evidence from Hurricane Katrina' (American Economic Review, 2020, with Deryugina); and 'Air Pollution and the Labor Market: Evidence from Wildfire Smoke' (Review of Economics and Statistics, 2024, with Borgschulte and Zou). His work has been published in leading journals and covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Molitor has received the Conrad W. and Shirley A. Hewitt Fellowship, Deloitte Scholar, Arnold O. Beckman Research Award, RC Evans Data Analytics Scholar, and Best Professor award for teaching at Illinois.