Dean Makes ‘Power 50’ List

David M. Cutler ’87, Harvard’s dean for the social sciences, finds himself in the company of Harry Potter and the founders of Google, in an annual ranking of the 50 most influential men under 45 published in Details Magazine.

If the United States achieves universal health coverage, the magazine wrote, “it’ll likely be thanks to David Cutler, whose proposals underpin the plans put forth by Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama,” the three leading Democratic presidential hopefuls.

Cutler, an economics professor who is advising Obama’s campaign, advocates balancing universal healthcare with free-market incentives for doctors and hospitals.

Details, a monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine for men, released the “Power 50” list in its October issue, noting, “There are no white-haired moguls or bank chairmen in attendance.”

This year’s rankings include a broad spectrum of characters—some fictional—ranging from Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to rapper Jay-Z to Mark E. Zuckerberg, the former member of the Class of 2006 who founded Facebook.

“It’s fun to see yourself in company like that,” Cutler said. “You don’t ever want to take yourself too seriously. But the good news is that it reflects that what I do is important.”

Cutler is ranked 28th on the list, between activist blogger Xavier Von Erck and Iggy, the 6-month-old dog adopted by TV show host Ellen DeGeneres.

Cutler said healthcare is the central cause of the U.S. government’s fiscal problems.

Total national health expenditures were $2 trillion in 2005, according to the non-partisan National Coalition on Health Care.

“In the past four or five years, I would say that there has been a lot of movement in the healthcare sector towards paying smarter. A small part of that may be attributed to my work,” he said, adding that several other economists and analysts had also contributed to the changes.

Some of Cutler’s recent work has been targeted at people who might not normally read academic articles, such as government officials and healthcare leaders.

His 2004 book, “Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America’s Health Care System,” sought to “take a very complicated body of knowledge that I care about and explain it to people who are very bright but not experts in the field,” said Cutler, a former adviser to the Clinton administration.

Cutler isn’t new to helping others understand the “dismal science.”

David M. Aboodi ’87, Cutler’s former roommate, said that Cutler often helped him with economics assignments.

“He always had a very creative approach to solving problems,” Aboodi said.