John Cawley

John Cawley is the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Chair in Public Policy and professor of economics and public administration and international affairs. He also serves as a senior research associate in the Maxwell-based Center for Policy Research and as a research affiliate in the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health. His research focuses on the economics of risky health behaviors; in particular, those that relate to obesity.

In addition to his affiliation with Syracuse University, he serves as an honorary professor of economics at the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at the University of Galway in Ireland. In 2016 he was named a Fulbright Specialist in Economics to Ireland through the Fulbright Scholar Program.

• Book
  • The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Obesity. Cawley, J. (ed.) Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Journal Articles
  • Cawley, J. H., "App-Based Physical Activity Intervention Among Women With Prior Hypertensive Pregnancy Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial." JAMA Network Open, 2025.
  • Alsan, M., Cawley, J., Doyle, J. J. and Skelley, N., "Mean Reversion in Randomized Controlled Trials: Implications for Program Targeting and Heterogeneous Treatment Effects." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2025.
  • Cawley, J., Eddelbuettel, J., Cunningham, S., Eisenberg, M., Mathios, A. and Avery, R., "The Role of Repugnance in Markets: How the Jared Fogle Scandal Affected Patronage of Subway." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2025.
  • Cawley, J., Dragone, D., "Harm reduction for addictive consumption: When does it improve health and when does it backfire?." Journal of Health Economics, 2024.
  • Biener, A. I., Meyerhoefer, C. and Cawley, J., "Non-classical measurement error in instrumental variables estimation: An application to the medical care costs of obesity." Health Economics, 2024.
  • De Weerd, E., Cawley, J. and van Kippersluis, H., "Transgender Transitioning and Responsiveness to Policy: Evidence from the Netherlands." AEA Papers & Proceedings, 2024.
  • Susskind, A., Willage, B. and Cawley, J., "The Impact of Restaurant Menu Calorie Labels on Restaurant Revenue and Profit: Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial." Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 2024.
  • Doyle, J., Alsan, M., Skelley, N., Lu, Y. and Cawley, J., "Effect of an Intensive Food-as-Medicine Program on Health and Health Care Use: A Randomized Clinical Trial." JAMA Internal Medicine, 2024.
  • Cawley, J., Frisvold, D., "Review: Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages: Political economy, and effects on prices, purchases, and consumption." Food Policy, 2023.
  • Cawley, J., Han, E., Kim, J. and Norton, E. C., "Genetic nurture in educational attainment." Economics and Human Biology, 2023.
  • Avery, R. J., Cawley, J., Eddelbuettel, J. C., Eisenberg, M. D., Mann, C. and Mathios, A. D., "Consumer Responses to Firms’ Voluntary Disclosure of Information: Evidence from Calorie Labeling by Starbucks." American Journal of Health Economics, 2023.
  • Cawley, J., Daly, M. and Thornton, R., "The effect of beverage taxes on youth consumption and body mass index: Evidence from Mauritius." Health Economics, 2022.
  • Cawley, J., Susskind, A. M. and Willage, B., "Does information disclosure improve consumer knowledge? Evidence from a randomized experiment of restaurant menu calorie labels." American Journal of Health Economics, 2021.
  • Cawley, J., Biener, A., Meyerhoefer, C., Ding, Y., Zvenyach, T., Smolarz, B. G. and Ramasamy, A., "Job Absenteeism Costs of Obesity in the United States: National and State-Level Estimates." Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2021.
  • Cawley, J., Frisvold, D., Jones, D. and Lensing, C., "The Pass-Through of a Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Boulder, Colorado." American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2021.

7th Dondena Workshop on Public Policy, "The Effects of Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in the U.S." (December 16, 2025)

Make America Healthy Again: Public Health in Changing Times, Maxwell in DC, "The Economics of GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs" (December 1, 2025 - December 1, 2025)

APPAM, "The Cook County Tax on Sweetened Beverages: The Purchase Impact of its Announcement, Implementation, and Repeal" (November 15, 2025)

APPAM, "The Impact of Healthy Diet Promotion Policies on Maternal and Infant Health in the Navajo Nation" (November 13, 2025)

Annual Meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Economics Association (LACEA), Latin American and Caribbean Economics Association (LACEA), "The Effects of Taxes on Sugar-sweetened beverages in the US" (November, 2025 - November, 2025)

Economics Dept seminar, University of Madrid, "The Impact of Healthy Diet Promotion Policies on Maternal and Infant Health in the Navajo Nation" (November, 2025)

Economics Dept seminar, Hamilton College & Colgate University, "The Impact of Healthy Diet Promotion Policies on Maternal and Infant Health in the Navajo Nation" (October, 2025)

Johns Hopkins University, "The Effects of Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in the US" (September, 2025)

Health Economics Seminar, American University, "The Impact of Healthy Diet Promotion Policies on Maternal and Infant Health in the Navajo Nation" (September, 2025)

International Health Economics Association World Congress, IHEA, "The Impact of Healthy Diet Promotion Policies on Maternal and Infant Health in the Navajo Nation" (July, 2025)

American Society of Health Economists Annual Conference, ASHEcon, "The Impact of Healthy Diet Promotion Policies on Maternal and Infant Health in the Navajo Nation" (June, 2025)

Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2014 - 2017)

Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship, State University of New York (SUNY) (2016)

Fulbright Specialist in Economics to Ireland, Fulbright Scholar Program, U.S. Department of State and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (2016)

Award for Excellence in Advising, Kappa Omicron Nu / Human Ecology Alumni Association (2015)

Honorary Professor of Economics, J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, University of Galway, Ireland (2014)