Catherine Schaumans, new TILEC member

Following the recent TILEC-Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) agreement to foster research on competition and regulation in health care markets, TILEC will soon welcome a new member, in the person of Catherine Schaumans, newly-recruited assistant professor in economics. Catherine recently defended her dissertation at KU Leuven under the supervision of Frank Verboven and Hans Degryse. Her research has focused on the impact of entry regulation on the market for pharmacists, on supply-induced demand for health care and on the strategic interaction between general practitioners and specialists associated to the introduction of mandatory referral (or 'gatekeeping') schemes. As of September, Catherine will strenghten the research group on healthcare, which was already reinforced by the addition of Marcel Canoy (economics) and Wolf Sauter (law) earlier in the Spring. A twin position to Catherine's has been created at the Faculty of Law and the vacancy has already been advertised. All those researchers will be involved in the project sponsored by NZa, in which it will invest € 800.000 over the period 2008-2011, while Tilburg University will contribute research time and facilities for over € 1 million. TILEC member Jan Boone is the overall director of the new research program.