Amanda Starc is a health economist and industrial organization expert who focuses on antitrust, competition, and regulation in healthcare and pharmaceutical markets. Professor Starc’s expertise includes health insurance design and pricing, consumer demand for health insurance and care, Medicare Part D, Medicare and Medicare Advantage reimbursement policies, and prescription drug spending.
Professor Starc has testified in depositions and served as an expert in matters related to hospital payments, health insurance benefits, Medicare Advantage, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
Professor Starc’s research spans numerous themes. She studies the design of health and prescription drug insurance and how information shapes consumer demand in these markets. Professor Starc also analyzes competition and firm behavior in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. In these contexts, Professor Starc evaluates various issues, including bidding in Medicare, health insurance regulation, health insurance pricing and adverse selection, preferred pharmacy networks, and marketing for pharmaceutical products.
Professor Starc received the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation Research Award, which honors outstanding published work advancing innovation in healthcare financing, delivery, and the organization or implementation of healthcare policy.
Professor Starc publishes her research in peer-reviewed journals, including the American Economic Review, the RAND Journal of Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. She is the editor of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Health Economics, the RAND Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Risk and Insurance. Professor Starc is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
At Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, Professor Starc teaches courses on economics research, healthcare analytics, and business strategy. Previously, she was Assistant Professor of Health Care Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.