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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson

@profericson.bsky.social
2.3K followers 646 following 163 posts

Professor, Boston University Questrom School of Business. Applied micro, health and behavioral economics.

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Reposted by Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson
Julian Reif @julianreif.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I'm glad AJHE is owned by ASHEcon. All econ societies should own their own journals if possible. Giving up control is a bad idea.
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Reposted by Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson
Stephanie Wang @sweiwang.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
🚨Elsevier forces out Games and Economic Behavior (GEB) Editor, entire editorial board has resigned, current board only handling new submissions until Nov. 14 #econsky
    Dear Advisory Editor of GEB
    We are very sorry to be the bearers of bad news for GEB.
I learned from Elsevier on Wednesday July 28 that, contrary to my expressed willingness to continue, my 3-year contract will not be renewed.
    "Moving towards a closer alignment with Elsevier strategic priorities and publishing policies" was offered as the motive for this decision. Requests for explanations, first by me, then in a collective letter by the other six Editors, were dismissed by Elsevier which simply reaffirmed its legal power to make such decisions.
    Elsevier then started precipitously its own search for new Editors without input of the Editorial Board.
    By Friday August 14 all seven Editors have sent their resignation, requiring a 3-month advance notice.
    Therefore, we will continue to manage as before the papers currently under review and the new submissions until Saturday November 14. After this date we will only complete the evaluation of papers still waiting an editorial decision.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Happy to have joined the team at Health Affairs for a podcast: How Inflation Skewed State Health Care Spending Targets youtu.be/1-gptEVnEf4?...
youtu.be
How Inflation Skewed State Health Care Spending Targets
YouTube video by Health Affairs
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
And there's more!
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
This footnote about the original paper's data seems like it could have formed the basis of a Data Colada post.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Grateful to Kyle Hyndman & Alberto Bisin for attempting to replicate a famous Ariely paper on deadlines. New study: beneficial effect of deadlines does not replicate. Data from the original paper seem to have a complicated story. Updating my behavioral econ syllabus... doi.org/10.1177/0956...
doi.org
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Open access PDF here: practicingeconomist.com/wp-content/u...
practicingeconomist.com
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/...
healthaffairs.org
Inflation Distorted State Health Care Spending Benchmarks: Nominal Growth Targets Called For Real Spending Cuts, 2022–23 | Health Affairs Journal
Multiple states have established benchmarks for health care spending growth. Since 2021, spending growth has exceeded most states’ benchmarks, prompting concerns about unsustainable growth. However, t...
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
How can states respond? Options include: report real spending performance alongside nominal; compare spending growth against actual long-term economic growth; and specify inflation-shock triggers.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Health care's share of these states' economies barely moved: 10.8% of GDP in 2019, 10.9% in 2021, 10.7% in 2023.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
What did those nominal targets actually require in real, inflation-adjusted terms? For the six states with 2022–23 data: hitting the benchmark would have required real spending per person to FALL 1.6% a year. Actual real spending per person rose 0.7% a year.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The targets are set in advance as fixed nominal percentages, around 3% a year. Most were designed when inflation ran under 2%. Then inflation came in at 4.1% in 2021, 6.5% in 2022, and 3.8% in 2023.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Missing a benchmark isn't just a bad headline. It shapes what policy makers believe is happening, and in some states it can trigger performance improvement plans or financial penalties.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Nine states now set targets for how fast health care spending should grow. Since 2021, most have missed them. My new paper in Health Affairs finds that a large part of that story is due to inflation.
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Reposted by Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson
Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Should you pay $500 in premiums to lower your deductible by $250? While classic models say never do this, our new AEJ: Micro paper shows buying a dominated plan can make sense for liquidity constrained people.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
A companion paper takes up the other half of the question: liquidity constraints change how we should interpret moral hazard: practicingeconomist.com/2025/04/07/m...
practicingeconomist.com
Moral Hazard under Liquidity Constraints
Spending induced by health insurance is often called moral hazard and definitionally assumed to be inefficient. We adapt standard models and show that for those living “hand-to-mouth”, …
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
We set moral hazard aside here to isolate the value of risk protection. Paper here: practicingeconomist.com/wp-content/u...
practicingeconomist.com
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
How much does this matter for plan design? Across plan designs with identical actuarial value, the gap in value can be about $100s per person/yr for a liquidity constrained enrollee and under $5 for a liquid one
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Liquidity constraints also affect the optimal design of insurance: contracts that smooth out-of-pocket costs over time are valuable. Deductibles concentrate cost sharing; copays and coinsurance spread it across the year.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Many American adults hold limited liquid assets. For them, insurance does more than pool risk— it also finances spending, letting a household spread a lumpy bill across months it otherwise could not. This raises insurance demand.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Should you pay $500 in premiums to lower your deductible by $250? While classic models say never do this, our new AEJ: Micro paper shows buying a dominated plan can make sense for liquidity constrained people.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
You inspired me! It was delicious!
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
AI is an amazing tool for humanity that will transform what we are able to learn and create. Like all tools, we as a society choose how to use it, and some will use it irresponsibly. But I see already how it has improved research and enabled projects that would have been impossible a year ago.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
And live stream at www.youtube.com/live/nl9Ctqd...
youtube.com
Board Meeting - April 16, 2026
YouTube video by MA Health Policy Commission
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Details at practicingeconomist.com/2026/04/16/i...
practicingeconomist.com
Is Massachusetts’ Healthcare Spending Growing Faster than the Economy?
April 16, 2026 Healthcare affordability is a real and urgent challenge in Massachusetts. Families feel it in premiums and deductibles. Employers feel it in compensation costs. The state feels it in…
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
I'm looking forward to discussing how Massachusetts' healthcare spending has grown relative to the economy at today's Health Policy Commission meeting.
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Reposted by Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson
MA Health Policy Commission @masshpc.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Today, the HPC was proud to join the twentieth anniversary of health care reform in Massachusetts celebration hosted by the @healthconnector.bsky.social. Read HPC Executive Director David Seltz’s statement on the reform milestone: masshpc.gov/news/press-r...
HPC leadership smiling in Faneuil HallSpeakers on stage at Faneuil Hall
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Ungated version here: practicingeconomist.com/2013/10/07/t...
practicingeconomist.com
The Size of the LGBT Population and the Magnitude of Anti-Gay Sentiment are Substantially Underestimated
Measuring sexual orientation, behavior, and related opinions is difficult because responses are biased towards socially acceptable answers. We test whether measurements are biased even when respons…
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Social desirability bias is real! We showed that surveys dramatically underestimated anti-gay attitudes, and that if you asked with a more privacy protecting method, people shifted their views. Not sure if anyone has used the method for racial issues. pubsonline.informs.org/doi/epdf/10....
pubsonline.informs.org
The Size of the LGBT Population and the Magnitude of Antigay Sentiment Are Substantially Underestimated | Management Science
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Just posted! We're hiring for a full time lecturer in analytics/econometrics at BU Questrom for this coming fall. Apply ASAP at academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31942
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Paper: journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/NX5AMSHZYCNKHF78M7I7/full?redirectUri=/doi/epdf/10.1086/737242
journals.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Thank you!
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Reposted by Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson
Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Proud to have "Nonbinary Gender Economics" out in JPE Micro. We document the economic experiences and preferences of nonbinary individuals—a population of 1M+ in the US that is often overlooked.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Hearing testimony today on Massachusetts's Health Care Cost Growth Benchmark.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
General interest summary here: practicingeconomist.com/2024/03/11/n...
practicingeconomist.com
Non-Binary Gender Economics
“Non-Binary Gender Economics” addresses the dearth of data on non-binary individuals in economics. The findings reveal significant differences in gender-based discrimination, career asp…
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Let me know your thoughts! Paper herejournals.uchicago.edu/eprint/NX5AMSHZYCNKHF78M7I7/full?redirectUri=/doi/epdf/10.1086/737242 . Thank you to fabulous coauthors, Luke Coffman and Katie Coffman!
herejournals.uchicago.edu
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Finally, nonbinary individuals have distinctive life aspirations: more motivated by helping their community, less by money, and substantially less likely to want children.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
We also ask about stereotypes. People hold substantially inaccurate stereotypes about nonbinary individuals. They often get the direction of group differences wrong or exaggerate their size.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
On time preferences, NB individuals report more impatience than either men or women. On social preferences, they're less prosocial than women but not consistently between men and women—it depends on the dimension.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Turning to measures of preferences, non-binary respondents score *lower* than both men and women on measures self-assertion—competitiveness, willingness to negotiate, self-efficacy. The NB-others gap is nearly as large as the M-F gap.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Indeed, anti-nonbinary sentiment among men and women exceeds anti-LGBT sentiment. And while the modal response is zero discomfort, roughly half of men and women report some discomfort with nonbinary individuals.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Nonbinary individuals report more gender-based discrimination than men or women in nearly every setting—school, medical, public, police, online. The exception: work, where they report similar levels as women.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Proud to have "Nonbinary Gender Economics" out in JPE Micro. We document the economic experiences and preferences of nonbinary individuals—a population of 1M+ in the US that is often overlooked.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Younger people do not just cross-subsidize older people. They also make the market more competitive and lower markups over cost. When they leave, the remaining pool less price sensitive, which can raise markups, leading to partial unraveling we warned about in the paper. doi.org/10.1162/REST...
doi.org
Pricing Regulation and Imperfect Competition on the Massachusetts Health Insurance Exchange
Abstract. We analyze insurance-pricing regulation under imperfect competition on the Massachusetts health insurance exchange. Differential markups lead to price variation apart from cost variation. Co...
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
In our paper, Pricing Regulation and Imperfect Competition on the Massachusetts Health Insurance Exchange, Amanda Starc and I showed that younger consumers are substantially more price sensitive than older consumers.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
The decline in ACA marketplace enrollment after the end of the enhanced subsidies is troubling. It is not just that people are having more difficulty affording insurance-- who leaves the market also affects how well the market works. www.wsj.com/health/healt...
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
This administration is using healthcare fraud- a real policy concern- as a fig leaf to target political enemies. An administration that repeatedly lies and violates the law and Constitution shouldn't be trusted with unchecked power to arbitrarily pull funding without due process.
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Reposted by Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson
Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Medicare Part B spends over $40 billion on physician-administered drugs. Our new study, forthcoming in the Journal of Public Economics, finds that the program's payment formula slows drug price growth over time.
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Team: Angie Acquatella, Keith Marzilli Ericson, Amanda Starc Full paper: authors.elsevier.com/c/1meWZAlwA2...
authors.elsevier.com
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Prof Keith Marzilli Ericson @profericson.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
We need to account for dynamics when forecasting the cost of government drug procurement. While our focus here is on US Medicare, similar dynamic incentives can be created from European external reference pricing systems.
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