Newsletter Issue No. 3 | January 2026
Dear colleagues and friends,
As we begin 2026, the new year already brings exciting scholarship, opportunities for methodological training, and new resources to support rigorous, policy-relevant research across IU and beyond.
This month’s newsletter highlights recent work by IU-HEC leadership, announces an upcoming IU-HEC Policy Research Workshop focused on economic evaluation methods, and shares a valuable new research support service now available through the IU Research Data Commons.
Affiliate Research Highlight
Do GLP-1 Medications Pay for Themselves? (NBER Working Paper No. 34678), led by IU-HEC Affiliate Coady Wing and coauthored by Sih-Ting Cai (O’Neill SPEA, IU), Daniel W. Sacks (University of Wisconsin), and IU-HEC Advisory Board member Kosali I. Simon (O’Neill SPEA, IU), examines the fiscal implications of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, widely used treatments for diabetes and obesity. Using large insurance claims data and quasi-experimental research designs, the authors assess whether GLP-1 initiation leads to downstream health care cost savings. While GLP-1 use reduces spending on other diabetes medications, overall non-GLP-1 medical spending increases, driven primarily by higher outpatient utilization, with no meaningful cost offsets observed over one- or five-year horizons. The findings suggest that the payer-side fiscal impact of GLP-1 therapies extends beyond drug costs, with potential savings, if any, likely emerging only over longer time horizons or outside the medical sector.
IU-HEC Policy Research Workshop: Economic Evaluation Methods.
April 14–15, 2026, IU Indianapolis
IU-HEC will host a two-day Policy Research Workshop on Economic Evaluation Methods on April 14–15, 2026, led by Dr. Anirban Basu, Stergachis Family Endowed Professor at the University of Washington and a leading scholar in cost-effectiveness and value-based decision-making. The workshop will include a foundational session on core economic evaluation concepts and recent advances in AI methods and equity weighting for economic evaluations, followed by a research seminar drawing on Dr. Basu’s work to illustrate applications for evidence-based policy and practice. Additional details on registration and participation will be shared soon.
New Research Support Resource: Data Management Plan Consultations
A valuable new service is now being offered by the IU Research Data Commons (RDC): Data Management Plan (DMP) consultations. These consultations provide tailored guidance for investigators preparing DMPs for grant proposals, with support spanning data organization, documentation, sharing, storage, and compliance with sponsor requirements.
More information about the consultations, and the request form, can be found on the RDC website. We encourage IU-HEC affiliates and collaborators to take advantage of this resource, particularly for large, multi-investigator, or data-intensive projects.
As always, thank you for your engagement with IU-HEC and for the collaborative spirit that continues to define this community. I look forward to another year of rigorous research, thoughtful policy engagement, and high-value intellectual exchange.
Wishing you a high-value year ahead, with favorable outcomes, minimal unintended consequences, and strong positive spillovers throughout the year!
Warm regards,
Sumedha Gupta, Ph.D.
Director, IU-Health Economics Consortium
Associate Professor of Economics, IU Indianapolis