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Mark Shepard Photo
Associate Professor of Public Policy
Contact:
Email
Assistant: Steve Walker
617-495-1186

Mark Shepard is an associate professor at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). His research studies health care markets, with topics at the intersection of health, industrial organization, and public economics. Much of his work focuses on competition and policy design in health insurance markets, particularly in public programs like the Massachusetts/ACA health insurance exchanges and Medicaid managed care. Mark received his PhD in economics from Harvard University (2015) and his A.B. in applied math from Harvard (2008). He was a Post-doctoral Fellow (in Aging and Health Economics) at the NBER during the 2015-16 academic year before starting as an assistant professor in 2016-17. Before graduate school, Mark spent a year working at the Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform (2008-09).

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Courses

Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles

McIntyre, Adrianna, Mark Shepard, and Timothy J. Layton. "Small Marketplace Premiums Pose Financial And Administrative Burdens: Evidence From Massachusetts, 2016–17." Health Affairs 43.1 (January 2024).
Baicker, Katherine, Amitabh Chandra, and Mark Shepard. "Achieving Universal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: Addressing Market Failures or Providing a Social Floor?" Journal of Economic Perspectives 37.2 (Spring 2023): 99-122.
Geruso, Michael, Timothy J. Layton, Grace McCormack, and Mark Shepard. "The Two-Margin Problem in Insurance Markets." The Review of Economics and Statistics 105.2 (March 2023): 237-257.
Shepard, Mark, and Ethan Forsgren. "Do insurers respond to active purchasing? Evidence from the Massachusetts health insurance exchange." Journal of Risk and Insurance 90.1 (March 2023): 9-31.
Baicker, Katherine, Amitabh Chandra, and Mark Shepard. "A Different Framework to Achieve Universal Coverage in the US." JAMA Health Forum 4.2 (February 2023): e230187.
Kong, Edward, Mark Shepard, and Adrianna McIntyre. "Turnover in Zero-Premium Status Among Health Insurance Marketplace Plans Available to Low-Income Enrollees." JAMA Health Forum 3.4 (April 2022): e220674.
McIntyre, Adrianna, and Mark Shepard. "Automatic Insurance Policies — Important Tools for Preventing Coverage Loss." The New England Journal of Medicine 386.5 (February 2022): 408-411.
Shepard, Mark. "Hospital Network Competition and Adverse Selection: Evidence from the Massachusetts Health Insurance Exchange." American Economic Review 112.2 (February 2022): 578-615.

HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series

Baicker, Katherine, Amitabh Chandra, and Mark Shepard. "Achieving Universal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: Addressing Market Failures or Providing a Social Floor?" HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP23-003, January 2023.
Shepard, Mark and Myles Wagner. "Reducing Ordeals through Automatic Enrollment: Evidence from a Health Insurance Exchange." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP23-002, January 2023.
Kreider, Amanda R., Timothy J. Layton, Mark Shepard and Jacob Wallace. "Adverse Selection and Network Design Under Regulated Plan Prices: Evidence from Medicaid." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP22-025, December 2022.

Research Papers/Reports

Shepard, Mark, and Myles Wagner. "Do Ordeals Work for Selection Markets? Evidence from Health Insurance Auto-Enrollment." August 23, 2023.
Kong, Edward, Timothy J. Layton, and Mark Shepard. "Adverse Selection and (un)Natural Monopoly in Insurance Markets." July 1, 2023.

Transparent Engagement 

Harvard Kennedy School is proud of its energetic involvement in the world. To better understand how to solve public problems by improving policy and leadership, we engage directly with policymakers, public leaders, governments, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses whose activities affect those problems. However, we recognize that such engagement can raise questions about perceived and potential conflicts of interest, so we disclose publicly the key professional activities of our faculty outside the Kennedy School. The activities disclosed below are for the most recent reporting period, as defined by University policy. Some may be paid, some may be unpaid, and others may be in exchange for expense reimbursement only.

Outside Professional Activities For Mark Shepard

Organization Relationship
American Economics Association Paid external reviewer
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Research or teaching appointment
American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon) Office in professional organization

Contact

Email
Assistant: Steve Walker
Office hours
Additional Website

Expertise

Health
Social Policy
Public Finance
Poverty, Inequality & Opportunity

HKS Affiliations

Taubman Center for State and Local Government

Mailing Address

Harvard Kennedy School
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138