Michael R. Richards

Professional Summary:

Michael Richards is a faculty member within the Department of Economics at the Hankamer School of Business. He also has a secondary faculty appointment at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He joined Baylor from the Vanderbilt University Department of Health Policy where he was a faculty member from 2015-2018. His previous academic training included a University of Pennsylvania postdoctoral research position within the Leonard Davis Institute (LDI) of Health Economics and Wharton School from 2013-2015. Prior to joining LDI, Richards completed his PhD in Health Economics and Health Policy at Yale University and earned his BS, MD and MPH degrees from the University of Illinois in Chicago before his time at Yale.

Richards has carried out a variety of empirical studies on U.S. health policy and economic topics, with his primary research area focused on healthcare provider responses to payment policies, regulation and industry trends (e.g., consolidation and vertical integration). He also has considerable interests in the structure and delivery of the public insurance programs (i.e., Medicare and Medicaid) as well as health care workforce issues. His active and broad research portfolio allows him to collaborate with investigators with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise at a variety of institutions across the U.S.

Education:

• 2013 – PhD, Health Policy, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
• 2010 – MD/MPH, Medicine and Health Policy & Administration, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
• 2006 – BS, Biological Sciences and Guaranteed Professional Program Admissions-Medicine, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Courses:

• ECO 4390 (fall) – Advanced Topics in Economics; Health Economics & Policy: Demand
• ECO 4390 (spring) – Advanced Topics in Economics; Health Economics & Policy: Supply
• HPA 5350 – Health Economics

Research Interests:

• Healthcare Provider Incentives
• Healthcare Mergers and Acquisitions
• Public Insurance Spillovers

Selected Publications:

• Geruso M. & Richards M.R. 2022. Trading Spaces: Medicare’s Regulatory Spillovers on Treatment Setting for Non-Medicare Patients. Journal of Health Economics, online ahead of print.
• Richards M.R., Seward J.A., & Whaley C.M. 2022. Treatment Consolidation after Vertical Integration: Evidence from Outpatient Procedure Markets. Journal of Health Economics, 81.
• Chen A.J., Richards M.R., Whaley C.M., Zhao X. 2022. The Extent of Externalities from Medicare Payment Policy. American Journal of Health Economics, 8 (2): 181-215.
• Chen A.J., Munnich E.L., Parente S.T., Richards M.R. 2022. Do Physicians Warm Up to Higher Medicare Prices? Evidence from Alaska. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 41 (2): 394-425.
• Richards M.R., Tello-Trillo D.S. 2019. Public Spillovers from Private Insurer Contracting: Physician Responses to Managed Care. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 11 (4): 375-403.