Healthcare is one of the largest sectors of in the U.S. economy and a major player in the global landscape of 21st century science, technology, industry, and business. The Healthcare Markets & Finance concentration allows students to dive into the relationships between economics, politics, society and healthcare. Students who want to work on the finance and business side of healthcare, from health administration & consulting, to insurance, to biotech and pharmaceuticals, are invited to explore this concentration. With an opportunity to take at least three courses with professors in Wharton's Business School and the Perelman School of Medicine, students in this concentration are able to bring their training in the social sciences and humanities into conversation with these more applied fields. 

The following list of pre-approved courses is intended to inspire, not to require.  This list suggests some of the courses which have been used in the past for the concentration and which can  individualize the concentration around a student's interests and goals.

Concentration Rules

  • Core courses may not be replaced by a petitioned course
  • Relevant courses may be petitioned as concentration electives
  • Up to three non-College courses* are permitted 
  • Courses not used for the core course may be used as topical electives where suitable

Core course  (1 cu required - No petitions accepted) 

HCMG 1010: Health Care Systems*
HCMG 2020: Economics and Financing of Healthcare Delivery (ECON 0630)
HCMG 2040: Comparative Health Care Systems*

Topical Electives  (5 cu required) 

AFRC 1123: Law and Society
ANTH 1238: Intro to Medical Anthropology
ANTH 2060: Cultures of Science and Technology
ANTH 2340: Pharmaceuticals and Global Health
ANTH 2730: Global Health: Anthropological Perspectives (HSOC 2382)
ANTH 3470: Anthropology of Corporations
BEPP 2010: Public Finance and Policy*
BIOE 5750: Healthcare Reform and the Future of the American Healthcare System (HCMG 2500)*
ENGL 0070: Literature and Medicine (formerly ENGL 107)
HCMG 2030: Clinical Issues in Health Care Management*
HCMG 2120: Health Care Quality and Outcomes*
HCMG 2130: Health Care Strategy and Management: the Business of Healthcare*
HCMG 2150: Management and Economics of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industries*
HCMG 2160: Health Insurance and the Industrial Organization of Health Care*
HIST 1161: American Capitalism
HIST 1740: Capitalism and Socialism in Crisis in the Americas
HIST 2704: Thinking about Capitalism
HIST 3201: Capitalism and Charity: The Long, Complicated Connection
HIST 3701: Capitalism and Humanitarianism
HSOC 1411: American Health Policy
HSOC 2401: Social Determinants of Health
HSOC 2457: History of Bioethics
HSOC 2523: Technology and Medicine in Modern America
LGST 1000: Ethics and Social Responsibility*
LGST 1010: Law and Social Values*
NURS 3240: U.S. Child Health*
PSCI 1173: Comparative Health Politics
PSCI 4170: Comparative Politics of the Welfare State
SOCI 1120: Law and Society (AFRC 1123)
SOCI 2240: Law and Social Change
SOCI 2450: Poverty, Race and Health
SOCI 2460: Social Inequality and Health
STSC 2018: Science in the Public
STSC 2707: Data and Death
STSC 3657: Technology and Democracy
URBS 2450: Poverty, Race and Health
URBS 2850: Health on the Urban Margins: The Experience of Health in American Cities


ONE of these may be used as a concentration elective:

BIOL 2510: Statistics for Biologists 
STAT 1110: Intro Stat 

ONE of these may be used as HMF concentration electives:

BIOE 4010: Introduction to Bioethics*
HSOC 1330: Bioethics  (SOCI 2971)
HSOC 2457: History of Bioethics
NURS 3300: Theoretical Foundations of Health Care Ethics*
PHIL 1342: Biomedical Ethics 

*non-College course

NOTE: ECON 0100 AND ECON 0200 MAY NOT COUNT FOR THIS CONCENTRATION

Updated 06/08/2023