Paul Heaton is an adjunct economist at the RAND Corporation. From 2012 to 2015, he was director of RAND's Institute for Civil Justice, and he currently is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where he codirects the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice. Much of his research aims to apply methodological insights from economics to inform issues in legal and criminal justice policy. His recent work examines liability of prosecutors and police and the impact of pretrial detention. Other work examines how the structure of insurance markets affects safety, medical care, and fraud; how attorneys impact case outcomes; and how drug control strategies influence criminal activity.
Heaton's prior work examines topics such as court budgeting, racial profiling, and police technology use. His research has been published in leading scholarly journals such as the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Law and Economics, American Journal of Public Health, and Journal of Labor Economics. In 2010–2011 he was a Stephen Carroll Distinguished Scholar in ICJ, and in both 2015 and 2010 he received the Edwin Huddleson Jr. Outstanding Teacher Award from the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Heaton received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.
Selected Publications
Paul Heaton, Beau Kilmer, Nancy Nicosia, and Greg Midgette, "Efficacy of Active Monitoring with Swift, Certain, and Modest Sanctions for Violations: Insights from South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Project," American Journal of Public Health, 103(1), 2013
Paul Heaton, James Anderson, "How Much Difference Does the Lawyer Make? The Effects of Defense Counsel on Murder Case Outcomes," Yale Law Journal, 122(1), 2012
Paul Heaton, "Sunday Liquor Laws and Crime," Journal of Public Economics, 96(1-2), 2012
Paul Heaton, Spencer Jones, Robert Rudin and Eric Schneider, "Unraveling the IT Productivity Paradox: Lessons for Health Care," New England Journal of Medicine, 366(24), 2012
Paul Heaton, Eric Helland, "Judicial Expenditures and Litigation Access: Evidence from Auto Injuries," Journal of Legal Studies, 40(2), 2011
Luis Garicano, Paul Heaton, "Information Technology, Organization, and Productivity in the Public Sector: Evidence from Police Departments," Journal of Labor Economics, 28(1), 2010
Paul Heaton, "Understanding the Effects of Anti-Profiling Policies," Journal of Law and Economics, 53(1), 2010
Paul Heaton, David Loughran and Amalia Miller, Compensating Wounded Warriors: An Analysis of Injury, Labor Market Earnings, and Disability Compensation Among Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, RAND Corporation (MG-1166), 2012