Aaron Schwartz
@aschwartz.bsky.social
MD-PhD professing at the University of Pennsylvania. Health, economics, and health economics.
Pinned
Aaron Schwartz
@aschwartz.bsky.social
· Jan 16
Our study testing AI/LLM assistance in health care delivery has been released as a World Bank working paper. Good for folks without NBER access. You can find the paper here. documents.worldbank.org/en/publicati...
I am particularly excited about the Acquatella and Marone paper being presented. It formalizes intuition about the value of health insurance and problems with the traditional understanding of moral hazard…
The Spring 2026 Economics of Health NBER Program Meeting starts today, and it can be streamed on YouTube at the link below
Economics of Health Program Meeting, Spring 2026
www.nber.org
February 19, 2026 at 1:37 PM
I am particularly excited about the Acquatella and Marone paper being presented. It formalizes intuition about the value of health insurance and problems with the traditional understanding of moral hazard…
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
The Spring 2026 Economics of Health NBER Program Meeting starts today, and it can be streamed on YouTube at the link below
Economics of Health Program Meeting, Spring 2026
www.nber.org
February 19, 2026 at 1:07 PM
The Spring 2026 Economics of Health NBER Program Meeting starts today, and it can be streamed on YouTube at the link below
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
NSF Update
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
February 13, 2026 at 9:22 PM
NSF Update
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
Oh no. My beloved Phillies are all in on hyperbolic, I mean, hyperbaric, oxygen therapy.
The Phillies are the first MLB team to use Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as part of a multi-year agreement with NexGen Hyperbaric.
A deep dive into the benefits:
A deep dive into the benefits:
Phillies become first MLB team to use Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
The Phillies are the first MLB team to use Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as part of a multi-year agreement with NexGen Hyperbaric.
www.nbcphiladelphia.com
February 18, 2026 at 10:21 PM
Oh no. My beloved Phillies are all in on hyperbolic, I mean, hyperbaric, oxygen therapy.
If you put an older patient in an MRI, you'll find about 80% of them have a rotator cuff tear. Most asymptomatic people have abnormalities on imaging. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
February 18, 2026 at 7:21 PM
If you put an older patient in an MRI, you'll find about 80% of them have a rotator cuff tear. Most asymptomatic people have abnormalities on imaging. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
Come work with me! I'm hiring for a post-doc position with expertise in health economics, to work on projects about healthcare markets and organizational form. Apply at academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31702
February 18, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Come work with me! I'm hiring for a post-doc position with expertise in health economics, to work on projects about healthcare markets and organizational form. Apply at academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31702
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
Real insane part of this clip is Hassett saying in the beginning that NY Fed researchers “should be disciplined” for…writing an economics paper that comes to a conclusion the president dislikes? A conclusion that matches the vast majority of economic evidence on tariffs? Nuts
Hassett: "The basic theory of President Trump's tariffs is sure, we're importing stuff from China, but we've got producers in US who make stuff, maybe at alightly higher place. If we bring stuff home, create demand, then that will hurt China & drive up wages & American consumers will be better off."
February 18, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Real insane part of this clip is Hassett saying in the beginning that NY Fed researchers “should be disciplined” for…writing an economics paper that comes to a conclusion the president dislikes? A conclusion that matches the vast majority of economic evidence on tariffs? Nuts
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
ASHEcon is seeking abstracts on topics related to US-focused health economics for presentation at the 2027 Allied Social Science Association (ASSA) annual meeting.
Learn more 👉 https://www.cognitoforms.com/ASHEcon1/_2027ASSAMeetingCallForPapers
Please submit by April 30, 2026.
Learn more 👉 https://www.cognitoforms.com/ASHEcon1/_2027ASSAMeetingCallForPapers
Please submit by April 30, 2026.
February 17, 2026 at 6:04 PM
ASHEcon is seeking abstracts on topics related to US-focused health economics for presentation at the 2027 Allied Social Science Association (ASSA) annual meeting.
Learn more 👉 https://www.cognitoforms.com/ASHEcon1/_2027ASSAMeetingCallForPapers
Please submit by April 30, 2026.
Learn more 👉 https://www.cognitoforms.com/ASHEcon1/_2027ASSAMeetingCallForPapers
Please submit by April 30, 2026.
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
"Concomitant with the emergent partisan gap [in trust in science] is a massive perceptual gap among Democrats, who perceive a partisan divide more than double its actual size. Democrats vastly underestimate Republicans’ trust in scientists" academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...
Continuity and Change in Trust in Scientists in the United States: Demographic Stability and Partisan Polarization
Abstract. Americans’ trust in scientists has been stable and high, relative to other political and social institutions, for the last half century (Krause,
academic.oup.com
February 17, 2026 at 1:23 PM
"Concomitant with the emergent partisan gap [in trust in science] is a massive perceptual gap among Democrats, who perceive a partisan divide more than double its actual size. Democrats vastly underestimate Republicans’ trust in scientists" academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
New dataset dropped this month: national Medicaid provider spending (2018–2024), aggregated by NPI x HCPCS x month. Includes FFS, managed care, and CHIP encounter data. Public, 3.3GB, provider-level detail. Looks very useful for utilization & spending research
opendata.hhs.gov
opendata.hhs.gov
HHS Open Data
Access official HHS datasets for research, analysis, and transparency.
opendata.hhs.gov
February 16, 2026 at 1:52 PM
New dataset dropped this month: national Medicaid provider spending (2018–2024), aggregated by NPI x HCPCS x month. Includes FFS, managed care, and CHIP encounter data. Public, 3.3GB, provider-level detail. Looks very useful for utilization & spending research
opendata.hhs.gov
opendata.hhs.gov
PSA: Regal theaters are showing Casablanca on the big screen today nationwide.
If you haven’t seen it, check it out! It is hilarious, clever, touching, beautiful.
If you haven’t seen it, check it out! It is hilarious, clever, touching, beautiful.
a woman is smiling in a black and white photo while sitting at a table with a lamp in the background .
ALT: a woman is smiling in a black and white photo while sitting at a table with a lamp in the background .
media.tenor.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:04 PM
PSA: Regal theaters are showing Casablanca on the big screen today nationwide.
If you haven’t seen it, check it out! It is hilarious, clever, touching, beautiful.
If you haven’t seen it, check it out! It is hilarious, clever, touching, beautiful.
This tech and piloting talent has made for incredible viewing.
Drones have brought viewers closer to the athletes than ever before. The pilots behind them have to be at the top of their game, too. on.wsj.com/4rmalH2
Everyone Watching the Olympics Is Buzzing About $150,000 Flying Robots
Drones have brought viewers closer to the athletes than ever before. The pilots behind them have to be at the top of their game, too.
on.wsj.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:16 PM
This tech and piloting talent has made for incredible viewing.
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
"As it is the power of exchanging that gives occasion to the division of labour, so the extent of this division must always be limited by the extent of that power, or, in other words, by the extent of the market."
It actually rules that theres a professor of rare moths, and an author specializing in hockey related romance novels.
February 12, 2026 at 1:54 PM
"As it is the power of exchanging that gives occasion to the division of labour, so the extent of this division must always be limited by the extent of that power, or, in other words, by the extent of the market."
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
I love being a labor economist, where null is interesting if your model is still convincing.
Anytime a student tells me they are worried they didn't find statistically significant results, I remind them of David Card. Two Nobel winning papers had null results (NJ/PA minimum wage and Mariel Boatlift)
Anytime a student tells me they are worried they didn't find statistically significant results, I remind them of David Card. Two Nobel winning papers had null results (NJ/PA minimum wage and Mariel Boatlift)
I have a new paper. We look at ~all stats articles in political science post-2010 & show that 94% have abstracts that claim to reject a null. Only 2% present only null results. This is hard to explain unless the research process has a filter that only lets rejections through.
February 12, 2026 at 1:13 PM
I love being a labor economist, where null is interesting if your model is still convincing.
Anytime a student tells me they are worried they didn't find statistically significant results, I remind them of David Card. Two Nobel winning papers had null results (NJ/PA minimum wage and Mariel Boatlift)
Anytime a student tells me they are worried they didn't find statistically significant results, I remind them of David Card. Two Nobel winning papers had null results (NJ/PA minimum wage and Mariel Boatlift)
Fascinating and intuitive. This post covers Glaeser (2003)-like misallocation losses over and above Harberger triangles. It also describes how small supply shocks can drastically tip allocations when prices can’t adjust.
I'm super excited for my new paper with Alex Tabarrok
and Mark Whitmeyer.
tl;dr: price controls cause chaos. That chaos causes misallocation. We develop new tools to measure that misallocation, which is 1-9 the size of the Harberger triangle www.economicforces.xyz/p/price-cont...
and Mark Whitmeyer.
tl;dr: price controls cause chaos. That chaos causes misallocation. We develop new tools to measure that misallocation, which is 1-9 the size of the Harberger triangle www.economicforces.xyz/p/price-cont...
Price controls cause chaos
Price controls are worse than you think
www.economicforces.xyz
February 12, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Fascinating and intuitive. This post covers Glaeser (2003)-like misallocation losses over and above Harberger triangles. It also describes how small supply shocks can drastically tip allocations when prices can’t adjust.
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
Federal government employment is down 324k since the start of 2025 amidst DOGE cuts—that's more than 10% of the Federal workforce
The large drop in October was caused by many workers who had been on deferred resignation becoming officially unemployed
The large drop in October was caused by many workers who had been on deferred resignation becoming officially unemployed
February 11, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Federal government employment is down 324k since the start of 2025 amidst DOGE cuts—that's more than 10% of the Federal workforce
The large drop in October was caused by many workers who had been on deferred resignation becoming officially unemployed
The large drop in October was caused by many workers who had been on deferred resignation becoming officially unemployed
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
This event is today! There's still time to sign up if you want to learn more about the health economics job market in places outside of economics departments.
Next month, the AcademyHealth Health Economics Interest Group is hosting a webinar on navigating the job market for health economists. Here about what hiring committees look for when evaluating candidates. Also probably helpful for non-economists!
Sign up here: wustl-hipaa.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Sign up here: wustl-hipaa.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
February 10, 2026 at 3:30 PM
This event is today! There's still time to sign up if you want to learn more about the health economics job market in places outside of economics departments.
It’s been frigid for too many weeks. Time to throw on the cold weather classic.
February 9, 2026 at 2:00 AM
It’s been frigid for too many weeks. Time to throw on the cold weather classic.
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
we admit grad students based on their ability to learn existing knowledge, but recommend them based on their ability to create new knowledge. we can’t predict how a person will be as a researcher based only on their undergrad record
#econsky #academicsky
marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/02/inte...
#econsky #academicsky
marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/02/inte...
Interview in China (accompanying new edition of Who Gets What and Why)
marketdesigner.blogspot.com
February 8, 2026 at 2:40 PM
we admit grad students based on their ability to learn existing knowledge, but recommend them based on their ability to create new knowledge. we can’t predict how a person will be as a researcher based only on their undergrad record
#econsky #academicsky
marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/02/inte...
#econsky #academicsky
marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/02/inte...
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
Reposted by Aaron Schwartz
Excited to share: the Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) Fund officially launched this week as an independent nonprofit.
Coefficient Giving is proud to be an anchor funder. 🧵
Coefficient Giving is proud to be an anchor funder. 🧵
February 7, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Excited to share: the Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) Fund officially launched this week as an independent nonprofit.
Coefficient Giving is proud to be an anchor funder. 🧵
Coefficient Giving is proud to be an anchor funder. 🧵
One of the most important scientific achievements of the last 50 years was making the causal links between prior viral infections (e.g. EBV) and subsequent serious diseases.
My Op Ed in Today's Washington Post: "The long-lasting effects of viruses — and the anti-vaccine movement. For some people, a viral infection can have devastating long-term effects."
wapo.st/4qjFtWk
wapo.st/4qjFtWk
February 6, 2026 at 3:52 PM
One of the most important scientific achievements of the last 50 years was making the causal links between prior viral infections (e.g. EBV) and subsequent serious diseases.
This is an important issue I’ve come across in our research on denials. Most health insurer claims denials (according to their label at least) have nothing to do with coverage rules.
📊Explore the latest issue of the HPC DataPoints series, “Evidence of Administrative Complexity: Health Insurance Claim Denials in Massachusetts.”
🔗: masshpc.gov/publications...
#HealthPolicy
🔗: masshpc.gov/publications...
#HealthPolicy
February 5, 2026 at 9:05 PM
This is an important issue I’ve come across in our research on denials. Most health insurer claims denials (according to their label at least) have nothing to do with coverage rules.