Faculty Profile

Howard Stein

Howard Stein, PhD, MA

  • Professor, Epidemiology
  • Professor, Dept. of Afroamerican and African Studies

Dr. Stein is a development economist who focuses on socioeconomic transformation in Africa. His health related publications and research interests have included the impact of neoliberalism on population health and health care systems in Africa, interdisciplinary understandings of water-borne and water-related diseases and health, poverty and gendered insecurities on the continent and the international financial system, health and Covid-19 in Africa. Since 2009, he has been working with an interdisciplinary team collecting cross-sectional and longitudinal socioeconomic data at the household level in more than 50 villages in five regions of Tanzania. The aim of the project is to develop improved measures of poverty by focusing on imputed income and dietary thresholds while assessing the drivers of poverty and the impact of alternative interventions on reducing poverty levels. He has done other research in a variety of African countries on issues like foreign aid, finance and banking, the methodology of Randomized Controlled Trials, climate change, industrial policy, export processing zones, agricultural policy, African over payment on sovereign bond issues, rural property right transformation, income inequality, Chinese economic relations and the institutionalization of neoclassical economics. Since 2018, he has been on the board of an NGO (ACARE) coordinating efforts to monitor the water quality, health and sustainability of the Great Lakes of Africa.

  • PhD, University of California Riverside, 1983
  • MA, University of Ottawa, 1977
  • Hon BA, University of Toronto, 1975

Research Interests:
Socioeconomic development; global finance, international economic policies and health systems; poverty and health

Research Projects:
Stein's has collaborated with Professor Kelly Askew of the Dept. of Anthropology at UM and researchers from Denmark and Tanzania for more than 10 years to survey socioeconomic conditions in rural Tanzania. The project has aimed at measuring and understanding the drivers of poverty and inequality in villages with a focus on the impact of access to electricity and property right formalization with funding from a number of sources including the NSF and Mott Foundation.

Stein is also working with an international team in the US, Canada, Europe and a number of African countries to improve scientific research on the Great Lakes of Africa including expanding the educational opportunities for scientists with a strong emphasis on increasing training access to women in science.

Stein has a number of other projects in place including using a grant from Swedish Global Challenge University Alliance to study the impact of failed land deals in Africa. He is collaborating on the project with researchers from Sweden and Uganda.

Stein, H and R. Rowden Global Finance and the Covid-19 Pandemic in Africa in Gerard McCann, Nita Mishra, Padraig Carmody eds COVID-19, the Global South and the Pandemic's Development Impact Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2022, (November)

Achieng A.O, T. Lawrence. B. Flavin, Z. Migeni, E. Kaunda, J. O. Manyala H Stein, K. Irvine, and B. Opaa The Future of Education and Training in Aquatic Science within African Great Lakes Journal of Great Lakes Research, August, 2022
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0380133022001915 

Stein, H. and F. Maganga Institutions, Structures and the Making of the Austerity Policy Paradigm in Africa in A. Jerome and S. Tella eds Reshaping Policies for Africa's Development: Essays in Honour of David A Olu Ajakaiye Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 2022

Stein, H, S. Cunningham and P. Carmody, The Rise of 'Behavioral Man': Randomized Controlled Trials and the 'New' Development Agenda Human Geography, Volume 14, No. 1, Feb., 2021

Stein, H. Institutionalizing Neoclassical Economics in Africa: Instruments, Ideology and Implications Economy and Society Volume 50, No.1, Feb. 2021

Stein, H. Africa and the Economic Pathologies of the Covid-19 Pandemic in P. Carmody et al. eds. COVID-19 in the Global South: Impacts and Responses Bristol: Bristol University Press, October, 2020 https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/covid-19-in-the-global-south 

Stein, H Institutional Transformation and Shifting Policy Paradigms: Reflections on Land Reform in Africa in Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng ed. Rethinking Land Reform in Africa: New Ideas, Opportunities and Challenges Abidjan: African Natural Resource Centre: African Development Bank, May, 2020
https://www.afdb.org/en/initiatives-partnerships/african-natural-resources-centre/publications/rethinking-land-reform-africa-new-ideas-opportunities-and-challenges 

Stein, H. Industrial Policy, Institutional Transformation and the Development of Industrial Parks in Justin Lin and Arkebe Oquabay The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Hubs and Economic Development Oxford: Oxford University Press, August, 2020
https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198850434.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780198850434-e-6?print=pdf 

Stein, H. Institutions, Structures and Policy Paradigms: Toward Understanding Inequality in Africa in Sisay Asefa and Wei-Chiao Huang eds. The Political Economy of Inequality: Global and U.S. Dimensions Kalamazoo: Upjohn, March, 2020 https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/260/ 

A full list of publications can be found on google scholar
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=enanduser=PnMtTDwAAAAJ 

Email: [email protected] 
Office: 734-763-5519
Fax: 734-763-0543

Address:
N4700 Haven Hall
Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
University of Michigan
505 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Areas of Expertise: COVID-19,  Global Public Health,  Health Policy