Heimer married prominent sociologist Arthur Stinchcombe[6] and with him co-authored the essay "Love and irrationality: It's got to be rational to love you because it makes me so happy" (1980)[7][8] and the books Crime and punishment–changing attitudes in America (1980)[9] and Organization theory and project management: administering uncertainty in Norwegian offshore oil (1985).[10]
Heimer's book Reactive Risk and Rational Action (1985) examined issues of fixed risk and reactive risk and their implications for policy-making in all areas of social life. Her choice of insurance as a model that could have broader application was hailed as "brilliant" by reviewer Margaret Levi.[11] The book was reprinted in 2020 as part of UC Press's Voices Revived program.[12]
Heimer has examined the delivery of AIDS drugs in clinics in South Africa, Uganda, Thailand and the United States.[15][16]
She writes extensively on the connections between health and law.[17][1]
1995: The Theory Section’s Theory Prize, American Sociological Association. for "Doing Your Job and Helping Your Friends: Universalistic Norms about Obligations to Particular Others in Networks,” pp. 143-164 in Networks and Organization: Structure, Form and Action. Harvard Business School Press. 1995[13]
2000, The Theory Section’s Theory Prize, American Sociological Association, for For the Sake of the Children, with Lisa Staffen. University of Chicago Press, 1998.[3][13]
2000, The Medical Sociology Section's Eliot Freidson Publication Award, American Sociological Association. for For the Sake of the Children, with Lisa Staffen. University of Chicago Press, 1998.[14]
2002, Elected to membership, Sociological Research Association (SRA)[18]
Stinchcombe, Arthur L.; Heimer, Carol Anne (1985). Organization theory and project management: administering uncertainty in Norwegian offshore oil. Oslo: Norwegian Univ. Pr. ISBN978-8200076001.[1][10]
Heimer, Carol A. (1985). Reactive Risk and Rational Action Managing Moral Hazard in Insurance Contracts. University of California Press. ISBN9780520318458.[11] Reprinted 2020.[12]
Heimer, Carol A. (1988). "Social Structure, Psychology, and the Estimation of Risk". Annual Review of Sociology. 14: 491–517. doi:10.1146/annurev.so.14.080188.002423.
Heimer, Carol A.; Petty, Juleigh (2010). "Bureaucratic Ethics: IRBs and the Legal Regulation of Human Subjects Research". Annual Review of Law and Social Science. 6: 601–626. doi:10.1146/annurev.lawsocsci.093008.131454.
^Stinchcombe, A L; Adams, R G; Heimer, Carol A; Scheppele, K L; Smith, T W; Taylor, D G (1980). Crime and punishment–changing attitudes in America (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. ISBN9780875894720.
