Published in Refereed Journals

Can Malpractice Pressure Compel a Physician to Relocate?  (with Justin Robertson)
Link to Publication at the International Law and Economic Review

Abstract: This analysis measures the effect of malpractice pressure on negative defensive medicine. Existing literature considers the effect of tort reforms on physician supply. However, some avoidance behaviors may not be observable at the aggregate level. Using a panel dataset which follows a random sample of 28,227 family medicine physicians in the United States from 1992-2007, this paper evaluates one of these avoidance behaviors by asking whether changes in malpractice premiums impact a physician’s decision to relocate their practice. Results indicate that group and hospital practice physicians are more likely to relocate to another state when premiums are high compared to solo and partnership practice physicians. Our findings also suggest that even large premium growth has only minor implications on the physician relocation decision. Generally, these results suggest that family medicine physicians do not use relocation as a strategy to avoid malpractice pressure.

Pony Distress: Using ESPN's 30FOR30 Films to Teach Cartel Theory (with Franklin G. Mixon)
Link to Publication at the Journal of Economics and Finance Education 

Abstract: This study provides a roadmap for economics instructors to use a graphical model along with various clips from ESPN’s critically-acclaimed 30FOR30 films series in order to complement classroom discussion of cartel theory, particularly the story of the National Collegiate Athletics Association as a cartel. The two films used here are Thaddeus D. Matula’s Pony Excess (2010) and Jonathan Hock’s The Best that Never Was (2010). Each chronicles the rampant rules-breaking, or cartel cheating, in college football during the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in the “Death Penalty” at SMU and the collapse of the Southwest Conference cartel. 
Note: Published under maiden name - Alice M. Crisp

Lincoln's Wartime Incumbency Network: Vertical Trust, Informal Payments, and the U.S. Presidential Election of 1864 (with Franklin G. Mixon)
Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice

Abstract: Public choice interpretations of historical events represent a growing literature in economics. This particular study follows in, and builds upon, this tradition by examining, through the public choice lens, events leading up to the U.S. presidential election of 1864. We posit that the modern theory of bureaucracy, as described in Breton and Wintrobe [1982], perhaps best explains the way in which Abraham Lincoln's subordinates assisted, sometimes even manipulating the gears of the federal (Union) government in doing so, in his re-election effort. That bureaucracy, which we refer to herein as Lincoln's wartime incumbency network, was based on a system of vertical trust, and included an incentive structure wherein subordinates provided Lincoln with informal services related to his re-election in 1864, and were provided in return with informal payments, which often consisted of ex ante/ex post promotions and/or nominations for other government positions. 
Note: Published under maiden name - Alice M. Crisp

Working Papers

The Prescription Drug Paradox: Pipeline Pressure and Rising Prices 
​(with Anirban Basu)
Under Review 
Link to NBER working paper 

Abstract:  Economic literature has extensively studied how prices for incumbent firms respond to competition after entry, especially in prescription drug markets following generic entry. However, less attention has been paid to firm behavior prior to entry. We contribute to this gap in the literature by both developing a model of pricing strategies for incumbent drug manufacturers under health insurance and empirically assessing pricing adjustments for incumbent firms, using the insulin market as a natural experiment. We consider the price strategy of incumbent firms among branded, horizontally-differentiated drugs under tiered insurance, which predicts rising prices for incumbent drugs for a range of elasticities as the likelihood of entry increases. Empirically, we exploit exogenous variation in a potential entrant's completion of clinical trials to identify the effect of drug pipeline pressure on the prices of incumbent drugs. Results suggest that pipeline pressure significantly increases the prices of incumbent drugs, and potential biosimilar entry may drive this effect. 

Flipping the Script: the Effect of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs on Prescribing Behavior
(with Jevay Grooms and Alberto Ortega)
Under Review 

Abstract: Provider-patient informational gaps make appropriate opioid prescribing difficult. Many states have implemented Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) to curb the epidemic at a common point of initiation of use, the prescription. We assess the effect of a mandatory query and/or a daily update component of a state's PDMP on specialty-specific opioid prescribing behavior using the Medicare Part D Public Use Files. We find that PDMP characteristics differentially affect prescribing across provider specialty, particularly a program's update frequency.  Our results suggest that policymakers should consider informational asymmetries across the provider spectrum when implementing programs to address opioid prescribing.​

Predicting Atrial Fibrillation Diagnosis before and after Ischemic Stroke
​Joint with Colleagues at Pfizer

Abstract: 

Works in Progress

"Deaths of Despair" with Emma Gause and Ali Rowhani-Rahbar

"Permit to Purchase Laws and Firearm Suicide" (with Emma Gause, Tim Wolock, Erin Morgan, Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, and Fred Rivara

"The Effect of Police Institutions and Resources on the Use of Force" (with Brian Meehan)

"Not quite a pill mill: effects of PDMPs on overprescribing providers" (with Jevay Grooms and Alberto Ortega)
​
"Switching the script: Post-PDMP Pain Prescribing Substitution Effects" (with Jevay Grooms and Alberto Ortega)

"Family Medicine: Malpractice Pressure, Practice Consolidation, Access to Care and Chronic Disease"

“Buffalo Wars: An Economic Analysis of Intertribal Relationships on the Great Plains” (with Bruce Benson)

Unpublished Manuscripts

"The Clinical and Economic Impact of Washington State's Oral Anticancer Treatment Parity Law"
​(with Anirban Basu)

Abstract: Several states have implemented legislation in recent years to control the rising cost of oral chemotherapy drugs. This study examines the impact of Washington State’s oral chemotherapy parity law on access to cancer treatment options and two aspects of treatment costs, patient out-of-pocket spending and health plan spending. We consider about 22,000 patients with newly diagnosed cancer about 4 years before and 3.5 years after the parity law took effect in 2012 by linking claims and enrollment data to the Washington State SEER cancer registry data. About half of the patients were in fully insured plans that are subject to the parity law (treatment group) and the other half were in self-insured plans that are exempt from the law (control group). Using an interrupted time series approach, we compare changes across these two groups following the implementation of the parity law. The analyses will also investigate differential impacts by type of cancer.