Dr Isaac Koomson

Senior Research Fellow

Centre for the Business and Economics of Health
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law
i.koomson@uq.edu.au
+61 7 344 31281

Overview

Isaac koomson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH). He also serves in an adjunct role as a Faculty Director with the Center for Social Development at the Brown School in the Washington University in St. Louis, United States. He is a guest lecturer in Quantitative Research Methods in the University of North Carolina and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the United States.

He holds a PhD degree in Economics (Applied Econometrics) from the University of New England, Australia; Master of Philosophy degree in Economics from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana; and a BSc (Hons) degree in Economics (Social Sciences) from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Apart from research, he has more than 10 years of teaching experience at the University of New England, Australia, the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and the University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana.

Dr Koomson’s current research is in the areas of health and development economics and cuts across topics such as child health (i.e., malnutrition), healthcare utilisation, out-of-pocket health expenditure, mental health, disease outbreak resilience, poverty, vulnerability, food insecurity, and energy poverty. He has worked on projects as a consultant to organisations such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and other policy-oriented research institutes.

His experience in producing translational research outputs. He was part of a three-member research team on the UNE/BUPA Health System Project which assessed students' access to the Australian Health System. He also led a team of researchers from the United States to introduce a novel multidimensional disease outbreak resilience index (DORI).

Research Impacts

  • Health economics: drivers of healthcare utilisation, catastrophic and out-of-pocket health expenditure, mental health, obesity, disease outbreak resilience, social determinants of health
  • Development economics and personal finance: how personal finance affects, health and wellbeing, poverty and vulnerability, food insecurity and energy poverty, among others
  • Applied econometrics: application of econometrics and emerging data science/analytic techniques to build evidence on how to enhance health and socioeconomic welfare and wellbeing outcomes

Publications

View all Publications

Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Ansong, David, Okumu, Moses, Huang, Jin, Sun, Sicong, Huseynli, Aytakin, Koomson, Isaac, Chowa, Gina, Ssewamala, Fred, S. Sherraden, Margaret and Sherraden, Michael (2023). Financial capability and asset building: innovations in social protection and development. Handbook on Social Protection and Social Development in the Global South. (pp. 308-330) edited by Leila Patel, Sophie Plagerson and Isaac Chinyoka. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing. doi: 10.4337/9781800378421.00033

  • Bukari, Chei and Koomson, Isaac (2020). Adoption of mobile money for healthcare utilization and spending in rural Ghana. Moving from the Millennium to the Sustainable Development Goals: lessons and recommendations. (pp. 37-60) edited by Sefa Awaworyi Churchill. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-981-15-1556-9_3

  • Peprah, James Atta, Afoakwah, Clifford and Koomson, Isaac (2020). Analysis of Crop Yield Volatility Among Smallholder Farmers in Ghana. Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development. (pp. 69-89) Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-44180-7_4

  • Koomson, Isaac and Ibrahim, Muazu (2018). Financial Inclusion and Growth of Non-farm Enterprises in Ghana. Financing Sustainable Development in Africa. (pp. 369-396) Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-78843-2_14

  • Peprah, James Atta and Koomson, Isaac (2017). Economic drivers of domestic violence among women: a case study of Ghana. Violence and society: breakthroughs in research and practice. (pp. 222-240) Hershey, PA, United States: IGI Global. doi: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0988-2.ch013

  • Peprah, James Atta and Koomson, Isaac (2013). Economic drivers of domestic violence among women: A case study of Ghana. Globalization and Governance in the International Political Economy. (pp. 166-183) IGI Global. doi: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4639-1.ch013

Journal Article

Grants (Administered at UQ)