Highlighted Publications




 

Richards and Whaley (2026) examined how recent waves of health care consolidation have affected competition, prices, quality, and patient access in the United States. They asked whether mergers, vertical integration, private equity ownership, and insurer acquisitions have improved health care efficiency or primarily increased market power. The article synthesizes evidence from national hospital, physician, insurer, and private equity data, along with findings from numerous em

Leonard and Lipton (2026) examine whether California’s 2020 expansion of full-scope Medi-Cal increased health insurance coverage among noncitizens ages 19 to 25, regardless of immigration status. They analyze 2016–2022 American Community Survey data and compare young California noncitizens with older noncitizens in California and similar age groups in six other states. Using a triple-difference design, they find that the expansion increased Medicaid coverage by 4.2 percentage

Layton et al. (2026) examine whether competition among private Medicare Advantage plans can successfully replace competition from traditional Medicare in delivering higher-value coverage. They analyze national Medicare enrollment, switching, mortality, payment, and market concentration data from 2007–2022, supplemented by prior empirical research. They find that Medicare Advantage enrollment increased from about 20% to more than 50% of beneficiaries, while four national insur

Kauer, McGuire, Schillo, and van Kleef (2026) asked how regulated health insurance competition differs between Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. They examined insurance rules, market structures, coverage and spending statistics, and findings from studies. They found that European systems require broad participation, rely less on profit-driven insurers, and use collective regulation to control prices. The U.S. Marketplace is voluntary, covers only p

Finkelstein and Gentzkow (2026) asked whether places that increase Medicare spending also increase life expectancy for older adults. They analyzed Medicare claims and mortality data for millions of beneficiaries, using migration (“mover”) designs to separate the effects of places from the characteristics of the people who live there. They found that places with larger causal effects on health care spending did not produce longer life expectancy. Place-based factors explained

Gottlieb and Nicholson (2026) asked how barriers to physician entry and competition from substitute health care providers shape physician markets. They reviewed evidence from medical school and residency data, physician workforce statistics, licensing regulations, insurance claims, earnings data, and prior economic research. They found that strict limits on medical school and residency positions continue to restrict physician supply, while nurse practitioners, physician assis

Buehler et al. (2026) asked how physician incomes compare across the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Sweden, and whether higher US physician pay reflects physicians’ relative position in the income distribution or higher incomes at comparable income levels. They analyzed administrative tax records covering nearly all physicians in each country. They found that physicians ranked among the highest earners everywhere, but US physicians earned much more. Eighty-four p

Agniel et al. (2026) asked whether Medicare’s 2020 decision to cover methadone treatment for opioid use disorder changed how opioid treatment programs operated and whether it expanded access to care. They analyzed national administrative data on treatment facilities (2015–2023) and treatment episodes using difference-in-differences methods. They found that opioid treatment programs were 45.4 percentage points more likely to accept Medicare after the policy, nearly doubling pa

Olenski (2025) examined whether nursing home closures harm displaced long-stay residents or improve their long-term outcomes by moving them to better facilities. He analyzed nationwide administrative data on all long-stay U.S. nursing home residents, including 1,104 nursing home closures, using a matched difference-in-differences design. He found that closures increased short-term mortality by 1.18 percentage points, a 16.3% increase over the baseline quarterly mortality rate

Bor et al. (2026) examined which causes of death account for the large number of excess deaths in the United States compared with 17 other high-income countries between 1999 and 2022. They analyzed more than 63.5 million U.S. deaths using mortality data from the World Health Organization Mortality Database. They found that the United States experienced about 12.7 million excess deaths during the study period, rising from 346,166 in 1999 to 905,159 in 2022. In 2022, circulator

Sinaiko (2026) examines how contracts between health insurers and health care providers affect competition in health care markets. She asks whether contract provisions help insurers lower prices and improve competition or allow dominant provider systems to preserve market power. Drawing on evidence from prior studies, antitrust cases, insurer-provider contracts, and health care market data, she finds that selective contracting, tiered networks, and reference-based pricing can

Young-Wolff et al. (2026) examined whether adolescent cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of developing psychotic, bipolar, depressive, and anxiety disorders by young adulthood. They analyzed data from 463,396 adolescents ages 13–17 who received routine cannabis-use screenings within Kaiser Permanente Northern California between 2016 and 2023 and followed them through age 25. They found that adolescents who reported cannabis use had substantially higher risks of

Macambira et al. (2025) examined whether privately managed Medicaid plans perform better than publicly administered fee-for-service Medicaid in controlling costs while maintaining quality and consumer satisfaction. They analyzed administrative data from nearly 100,000 Louisiana Medicaid enrollees who were randomly assigned to either private managed care or public fee-for-service coverage. They found that private managed care reduced overall healthcare spending by 5.6%, includ

Patel, Liu, and Jena (2026) examined whether the launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in July 2022 was associated with changes in suicide mortality among adolescents and young adults ages 15–34. They analyzed national mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System from 1999–2024 and compared observed suicide deaths after the launch of 988 with deaths expected based on prior trends. They found that suicide mortality was significantly lower than expected afte

Egede et al. (2026) examined whether African American or Black race, historic redlining, and contemporary structural racism are associated with diabetes prevalence in U.S. neighborhoods and what pathways explain those relationships. They analyzed data from 15,190 census tracts across 157 counties using CDC diabetes prevalence estimates, census data, historical redlining maps, and a multidimensional measure of contemporary structural racism. They found that contemporary struct

Chan and Chen (2025) examine how the productivity of nurse practitioners compares to physicians in emergency departments. They study 1.1 million patient visits from Veterans Health Administration emergency departments, using quasi-random assignment of patients to providers. They find that nurse practitioners use more resources, increasing length of stay by about 11 percent and costs by 7 percent. They also raise 30-day preventable hospitalizations by roughly 20 percent, with

Bhai and Hughes (2026) ask whether individuals who enroll in Medicare Advantage at age 65 are systematically different, especially in health, from those who do not. They use administrative claims data (2007–2017) tracking commercially insured individuals transitioning into Medicare, leveraging the age-65 eligibility cutoff. They find strong advantageous selection: healthier individuals are more likely to enroll in Medicare Advantage. For example, having diabetes without compl

Hofmann and Huang (2024) ask whether changes to Medicare Part D—specifically closing the coverage gap—affect drug prices and consumer behavior. They analyze detailed claims data from a 20% sample of Medicare beneficiaries from 2006–2018, covering about 1.9 billion prescription drug purchases. They find that closing the gap increased drug use, with beneficiaries 5 percentage points less likely to skip prescriptions. However, manufacturers responded by raising prices: highly ex

Cordova-Ramos et al. (2026) examine how U.S. preterm birth rates vary over time by household income and whether racial and ethnic disparities persist across income groups. They analyze nationally representative Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data covering 411,469 mother–infant dyads from 2011–2021. They find that preterm birth rates increased among households below 200% of the federal poverty level but remained stable among higher-income households. Overa

Lin et al. (2026) examine whether state-level flavored e-cigarette sales bans are associated with changes in e-cigarette initiation. They ask if living in a state with a comprehensive flavor ban reduces the likelihood that never-users begin using e-cigarettes. They analyze data from Waves 4–7 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study (2017–2023), focusing on adolescents, young adults, and adults who had never used e-cigarettes at baseline. They find that