Amitabh Chandra
Biographic Data
| ID | 3822728 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amitabh Chandra |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amitabh |
| FAMILY NAME | Chandra |
| SIGNATURE | CHANDRA A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Harvard University Press |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Market-Expanding Role of Regulatory Approval in Medicine
Regulatory review is often seen as a barrier to innovation, increasing costs and delaying new medicines. Yet approval may also expand markets by certifying quality and reducing uncertainty. We test this by studying FDA approval for follow-on indications—uses that physicians could already prescribe “offlabel” — and find approval raises use in newly approved diseases by 25 percent within a year, with larger increases in smaller off-label markets. S…
Regulatory Incentives for Innovation: The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy Designation
Regulators of new products confront a trade-off between speeding a product to market and collecting additional product quality information. The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) provides an opportunity to understand if regulators can use new policy to innovate around this trade-off. We find that the BTD program shortened clinical development times by 23% and did not affect the ex post safety profile of drugs with the designation. The B…
Revenue Differences Between Top-Selling Small-Molecule Drugs and Biologics in Medicare
This study compares the revenues earned by manufacturers 9 vs 13 years following US Food and Drug Administration approval for negotiation-eligible products from 2012 to 2022
Can Prevention Save Money
This JAMA Forum discusses some key considerations for addressing the question of whether and when prevention interventions are worth the cost
Hospital Allocation and Racial Disparities in Health Care
We develop a framework to measure the role of hospital allocation in racial disparities in health care and use it to study Black and white heart attack patients. Black patients receive care at lower-performing hospitals than white patients. However, over two decades, the performance gap between hospitals treating Black and white patients shrank by over two-thirds. This progress is due to more rapid performance improvement at hospitals that tended…
It Is Time to Consider More Price Regulation in Health Care
This JAMA Forum discusses the promise and pitfalls of regulating prices in the US health care system
Investing in Long-Term Health
This JAMA Forum discusses treatment and health care delivery, innovative use of risk analytics, and spending and coverage priorities in the US health insurance system
A Different Framework to Achieve Universal Coverage in the US
This JAMA Forum discusses alternative ways to achieve universal coverage in the US such as administrative simplification in the Affordable Care Act plans to increase enrollment, having a basic policy that would be available to everyone, and options for supplemental coverage
Achieving Universal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: Addressing Market Failures or Providing a Social Floor
The United States spends substantially more on health care than most developed countries, yet leaves a greater share of the population uninsured. We argue that incremental insurance expansions focused on addressing market failures will propagate inefficiencies and will fail to facilitate the active policy decisions needed to achieve socially optimal coverage. By instead defining a basic bundle of services that is publicly financed for all, while …
The Great Unequalizer: Initial Health Effects of Covid-19 in the United States
We measure inequities from the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality and hospitalizations in the United States during the early months of the outbreak. We discuss challenges in measuring health outcomes and health inequality, some of which are specific to COVID-19 and others that complicate attribution during most large health shocks. As in past epidemics, preexisting biological and social vulnerabilities profoundly influenced the distribution of diseas…
Economic Principles for Medicare Reform
In this article, we develop an economic framework for Medicare reform that highlights trade-offs that reform proposals should grapple with, but often ignore. Central to our argument is a tension in administratively set prices, which may improve short-term efficiency but do so at the expense of dynamic efficiency (slowing innovations in new treatments). The smaller the Medicare program is relative to the commercial market, the less important this …
The Impact of Tobacco Control Policies on Disparities in Children’s Secondhand Smoke Exposure: A Comparison of Methods
The Pragmatist's Guide to Comparative Effectiveness Research
Following an acrimonious health care reform debate involving charges of "death panels," in 2010, Congress explicitly forbade the use of cost-effectiveness analysis in government programs of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In this context, comparative effectiveness research emerged as an alternative strategy to understand better what works in health care. Put simply, comparative effectiveness research compares the efficacy of two o…
Rising up with shoe leather? A comment on Fair Society, Healthy Lives (The Marmot Review)
Point-of-Purchase Price and Education Intervention to Reduce Consumption of Sugary Soft Drinks
Objectives. We investigated whether a price increase on regular (sugary) soft drinks and an educational intervention would reduce their sales. Methods. We implemented a 5-phase intervention at the Brigham and Women's Hospital cafeteria in Boston, Massachusetts. After posting existing prices of regular and diet soft drinks and water during baseline, we imposed several interventions in series: a price increase of 35% on regular soft drinks, a rever…
Measuring Racial Disparities in the Quality of Ambulatory Diabetes Care
BACKGROUND: Improving the health of minority patients who have diabetes depends in part on improving quality and reducing disparities in ambulatory care. It has been difficult to measure these components at the level of actionable units. OBJECTIVE: To measure ambulatory care quality and racial disparities in diabetes care across groups of physicians who care for populations of ambulatory diabetes patients. RESEARCH DESIGN: Prospective cohort anal…
Who You Are and Where You Live: Race and the Geography of Healthcare
From the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI), Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. Supported by the National Institute of Aging P01 AG19783-02, and the Taubman Center for Government at Harvard University. Reprints: Amitabh Chandra, PhD, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, M…
Productivity Spillovers in Health Care: Evidence from the Treatment of Heart Attacks
A large literature in medicine documents variation across areas in the use of surgical treatments that is unrelated to outcomes. Observers of this phenomena have invoked "flat of the curve medicine" to explain these facts, and have advocated for reductions in spending in high-use areas. In contrast, we develop a simple Roy model of patient treatment choice with productivity spillovers that can generate the empirical facts. Our model predicts that…
Hospital-Level Racial Disparities in Acute Myocardial Infarction Treatment and Outcomes
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have documented racial disparities in treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among Medicare beneficiaries. However, the extent to which unobserved differences between hospitals explains some of these differences is unknown. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether the observed racial treatment disparities for AMI narrow when analyses account for differences in where blacks and whites are…
Does public infrastructure affect economic activity?
Health insurance coverage of the unemployed: Cobra and the potential effects of Kassebaum-Kennedy
We use the April 1993 Current Population Survey to examine the health insurance coverage decisions of the unemployed and to simulate the potential effects of the new Kassebaum-Kennedy legislation. After controlling for demographic characteristics, COBRA eligibility raises the probability of health insurance coverage by 0.095, while eligibility for spouse employer insurance increases the likelihood of coverage by 0.318, and eligibility for both in…
Health insurance coverage of the unemployed: Cobra and the potential effects of Kassebaum‐Kennedy
We use the April 1993 Current Population Survey to examine the health insurance coverage decisions of the unemployed and to simulate the potential effects of the new Kassebaum-Kennedy legislation. After controlling for demographic characteristics, COBRA eligibility raises the probability of health insurance coverage by 0.095, while eligibility for spouse employer insurance increases the likelihood of coverage by 0.318, and eligibility for both in…
Taxes and the Timing of Births
Because the tax savings of having a child are a realized only if the birth takes place before midnight, January 1, the incentives for the "marginal" birth are substantial. Using a sample of children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find that the probability that a child is born in the last week of December, rather than the first week of January, is positively correlated with tax benefits. We estimate that increasing the tax bene…
Taxes and the Timing of Births
Because the tax savings of having a child are a realized only if the birth takes place before midnight, January 1, the incentives for the "marginal" birth are substantial. Using a sample of children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find that the probability that a child is born in the last week of December, rather than the first week of January, is positively correlated with tax benefits. We estimate that increasing the tax bene…
Productivity Spillovers in Health Care: Evidence from the Treatment of Heart Attacks
A large literature in medicine documents variation across areas in the use of surgical treatments that is unrelated to outcomes. Observers of this phenomena have invoked "flat of the curve medicine" to explain these facts, and have advocated for reductions in spending in high-use areas. In contrast, we develop a simple Roy model of patient treatment choice with productivity spillovers that can generate the empirical facts. Our model predicts that…
The Great Unequalizer: Initial Health Effects of Covid-19 in the United States
We measure inequities from the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality and hospitalizations in the United States during the early months of the outbreak. We discuss challenges in measuring health outcomes and health inequality, some of which are specific to COVID-19 and others that complicate attribution during most large health shocks. As in past epidemics, preexisting biological and social vulnerabilities profoundly influenced the distribution of diseas…
Point-of-Purchase Price and Education Intervention to Reduce Consumption of Sugary Soft Drinks
Objectives. We investigated whether a price increase on regular (sugary) soft drinks and an educational intervention would reduce their sales. Methods. We implemented a 5-phase intervention at the Brigham and Women's Hospital cafeteria in Boston, Massachusetts. After posting existing prices of regular and diet soft drinks and water during baseline, we imposed several interventions in series: a price increase of 35% on regular soft drinks, a rever…
Rising up with shoe leather? A comment on Fair Society, Healthy Lives (The Marmot Review)
The Pragmatist's Guide to Comparative Effectiveness Research
Following an acrimonious health care reform debate involving charges of "death panels," in 2010, Congress explicitly forbade the use of cost-effectiveness analysis in government programs of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In this context, comparative effectiveness research emerged as an alternative strategy to understand better what works in health care. Put simply, comparative effectiveness research compares the efficacy of two o…
Health insurance coverage of the unemployed: Cobra and the potential effects of Kassebaum-Kennedy
We use the April 1993 Current Population Survey to examine the health insurance coverage decisions of the unemployed and to simulate the potential effects of the new Kassebaum-Kennedy legislation. After controlling for demographic characteristics, COBRA eligibility raises the probability of health insurance coverage by 0.095, while eligibility for spouse employer insurance increases the likelihood of coverage by 0.318, and eligibility for both in…
Health insurance coverage of the unemployed: Cobra and the potential effects of Kassebaum‐Kennedy
We use the April 1993 Current Population Survey to examine the health insurance coverage decisions of the unemployed and to simulate the potential effects of the new Kassebaum-Kennedy legislation. After controlling for demographic characteristics, COBRA eligibility raises the probability of health insurance coverage by 0.095, while eligibility for spouse employer insurance increases the likelihood of coverage by 0.318, and eligibility for both in…
Taxes and the Timing of Births
Because the tax savings of having a child are a realized only if the birth takes place before midnight, January 1, the incentives for the "marginal" birth are substantial. Using a sample of children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find that the probability that a child is born in the last week of December, rather than the first week of January, is positively correlated with tax benefits. We estimate that increasing the tax bene…
Does public infrastructure affect economic activity?
Hospital-Level Racial Disparities in Acute Myocardial Infarction Treatment and Outcomes
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have documented racial disparities in treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among Medicare beneficiaries. However, the extent to which unobserved differences between hospitals explains some of these differences is unknown. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether the observed racial treatment disparities for AMI narrow when analyses account for differences in where blacks and whites are…
Productivity Spillovers in Health Care: Evidence from the Treatment of Heart Attacks
A large literature in medicine documents variation across areas in the use of surgical treatments that is unrelated to outcomes. Observers of this phenomena have invoked "flat of the curve medicine" to explain these facts, and have advocated for reductions in spending in high-use areas. In contrast, we develop a simple Roy model of patient treatment choice with productivity spillovers that can generate the empirical facts. Our model predicts that…
Who You Are and Where You Live: Race and the Geography of Healthcare
From the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI), Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. Supported by the National Institute of Aging P01 AG19783-02, and the Taubman Center for Government at Harvard University. Reprints: Amitabh Chandra, PhD, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, M…
Rising up with shoe leather? A comment on Fair Society, Healthy Lives (The Marmot Review)
Point-of-Purchase Price and Education Intervention to Reduce Consumption of Sugary Soft Drinks
Objectives. We investigated whether a price increase on regular (sugary) soft drinks and an educational intervention would reduce their sales. Methods. We implemented a 5-phase intervention at the Brigham and Women's Hospital cafeteria in Boston, Massachusetts. After posting existing prices of regular and diet soft drinks and water during baseline, we imposed several interventions in series: a price increase of 35% on regular soft drinks, a rever…
Measuring Racial Disparities in the Quality of Ambulatory Diabetes Care
BACKGROUND: Improving the health of minority patients who have diabetes depends in part on improving quality and reducing disparities in ambulatory care. It has been difficult to measure these components at the level of actionable units. OBJECTIVE: To measure ambulatory care quality and racial disparities in diabetes care across groups of physicians who care for populations of ambulatory diabetes patients. RESEARCH DESIGN: Prospective cohort anal…
The Pragmatist's Guide to Comparative Effectiveness Research
Following an acrimonious health care reform debate involving charges of "death panels," in 2010, Congress explicitly forbade the use of cost-effectiveness analysis in government programs of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In this context, comparative effectiveness research emerged as an alternative strategy to understand better what works in health care. Put simply, comparative effectiveness research compares the efficacy of two o…
The Impact of Tobacco Control Policies on Disparities in Children’s Secondhand Smoke Exposure: A Comparison of Methods
Economic Principles for Medicare Reform
In this article, we develop an economic framework for Medicare reform that highlights trade-offs that reform proposals should grapple with, but often ignore. Central to our argument is a tension in administratively set prices, which may improve short-term efficiency but do so at the expense of dynamic efficiency (slowing innovations in new treatments). The smaller the Medicare program is relative to the commercial market, the less important this …
The Great Unequalizer: Initial Health Effects of Covid-19 in the United States
We measure inequities from the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality and hospitalizations in the United States during the early months of the outbreak. We discuss challenges in measuring health outcomes and health inequality, some of which are specific to COVID-19 and others that complicate attribution during most large health shocks. As in past epidemics, preexisting biological and social vulnerabilities profoundly influenced the distribution of diseas…
A Different Framework to Achieve Universal Coverage in the US
This JAMA Forum discusses alternative ways to achieve universal coverage in the US such as administrative simplification in the Affordable Care Act plans to increase enrollment, having a basic policy that would be available to everyone, and options for supplemental coverage
Achieving Universal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: Addressing Market Failures or Providing a Social Floor
The United States spends substantially more on health care than most developed countries, yet leaves a greater share of the population uninsured. We argue that incremental insurance expansions focused on addressing market failures will propagate inefficiencies and will fail to facilitate the active policy decisions needed to achieve socially optimal coverage. By instead defining a basic bundle of services that is publicly financed for all, while …
Hospital Allocation and Racial Disparities in Health Care
We develop a framework to measure the role of hospital allocation in racial disparities in health care and use it to study Black and white heart attack patients. Black patients receive care at lower-performing hospitals than white patients. However, over two decades, the performance gap between hospitals treating Black and white patients shrank by over two-thirds. This progress is due to more rapid performance improvement at hospitals that tended…
It Is Time to Consider More Price Regulation in Health Care
This JAMA Forum discusses the promise and pitfalls of regulating prices in the US health care system
Investing in Long-Term Health
This JAMA Forum discusses treatment and health care delivery, innovative use of risk analytics, and spending and coverage priorities in the US health insurance system
Revenue Differences Between Top-Selling Small-Molecule Drugs and Biologics in Medicare
This study compares the revenues earned by manufacturers 9 vs 13 years following US Food and Drug Administration approval for negotiation-eligible products from 2012 to 2022
Can Prevention Save Money
This JAMA Forum discusses some key considerations for addressing the question of whether and when prevention interventions are worth the cost
The Market-Expanding Role of Regulatory Approval in Medicine
Regulatory review is often seen as a barrier to innovation, increasing costs and delaying new medicines. Yet approval may also expand markets by certifying quality and reducing uncertainty. We test this by studying FDA approval for follow-on indications—uses that physicians could already prescribe “offlabel” — and find approval raises use in newly approved diseases by 25 percent within a year, with larger increases in smaller off-label markets. S…
Regulatory Incentives for Innovation: The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy Designation
Regulators of new products confront a trade-off between speeding a product to market and collecting additional product quality information. The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) provides an opportunity to understand if regulators can use new policy to innovate around this trade-off. We find that the BTD program shortened clinical development times by 23% and did not affect the ex post safety profile of drugs with the designation. The B…
Economics (16 works) · Medicine (14 works) · Business (11 works) · Health care (11 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Healthcare Policy and Management (10 works) · Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life (8 works) · Global Health Care Issues (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Demographic economics (6 works)