Deborah Haas-Wilson

Deborah Haas-Wilson is the Marilyn Carlson Nelson Professor of Economics at Smith College.  She was a Visiting Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School (2014-2016), a Visiting Scholar at the University of California—Berkeley (2019), and a Visiting Professor at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University (2023).

Professor Haas-Wilson’s research focuses on competition and competition policies in health care markets. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Law and Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Health Economics and other peer-reviewed journals. She is the author of Managed Care and Monopoly Power: The Antitrust Challenge (Harvard University Press, 2003) and co-editor of Uncertain Times: Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care(Duke University Press, 2003).

Professor Haas-Wilson was a recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Investigator Award in Health Policy Research. She is a member of the Board of Directors at the Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare—University of California, Berkeley.  From 2013 to 2023, she was an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Health Economics.

Professor Haas-Wilson works as an expert in health care antitrust, including cases involving the competitive effects of 1) hospital mergers, 2) vertical consolidation of hospital systems and physician organizations, 3) physician organization mergers and networks, 4) exclusive contracts, and 5) the Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans’ market allocation and price-fixing agreements. She has served as an expert on antitrust issues to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in multiple matters, including Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Corporation, the Massachusetts Attorney General, and numerous private entities. In 2013, she testified in Federal District Court in Idaho on behalf of plaintiffs in an antitrust lawsuit alleging competitive harm from St. Luke’s Health System’s acquisition of a large independent physician practice (10032013 Day 9.SGNGL).  For more information on FTC’s Evanston case and the St. Luke’s case, see:

Haas-Wilson, “Revisiting a Merger: FTC v. Evanston Northwestern Healthcare,” in John E. Kwoka Jr. and Lawrence J. White, eds., The Antitrust Revolution: Economics, Competition, and Policy, New York: Oxford University Press (2014).

Haas-Wilson, “Hospital-Physician Integration: The St. Luke’s Case,” (with T. Chipty) in John E. Kwoka Jr. and Lawrence J. White, eds., The Antitrust Revolution: Economics, Competition, and Policy, New York: Oxford University Press (2018).

Selected Articles

Antitrust Policy and Health Care Markets

"Geographic Market Definition in Commercial Health Insurer Matters: A Unified Approach for Merger Review, Monopolization Claims, and Monopsonization Claims," (with K. Zetenyi and B. Gorin) The Antitrust Journal 68:3 (July 2023)

"Hospital Mergers and Competitive Effects: Two Retrospective Analyses," (with C. Garmon) International Journal of Economics of Business 18:1 (February 2011).

"The Effect of Vertical Consolidation in Health Care Markets," in Managed Care and Monopoly Power (Harvard University Press, 2003).

"Are Invisible Hands Good Hands? Moral Hazard, Competition, and the 2nd Best in Health Care Markets," (with M. Gaynor and W. Vogt) The Journal of Political Economy 108:5 (October 2000).

"Change, Consolidation, and Competition in Health Care Markets," (with M. Gaynor) The Journal of Economic Perspectives 13:1 (Winter 1999).

“Physician Networks and Their Implications for Competition in Health Care Markets,” (with M. Gaynor) Health Economics 7 (1998).

Economics of Regulation

"Women's Reproductive Choices: The Impact of Medicaid Funding Restrictions,"Family Planning Perspectives 29:5 (September/October 1997).

"The Impact of State Abortion Restrictions on Minors' Demand for Abortions," The Journal of Human Resources 31:1 (Winter 1996).

"The Economic Impact of State Restrictions on Abortions: Parental Consent and Notification Laws and Medicaid Funding Restrictions," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 12:3 (Summer 1993).

"The Impact of Vendorship Legislation and Inter-Professional Competition in the Market for Social Workers' Services," International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 14:4 (October 1991).

"Strategic Regulatory Entry Deterrence: An Empirical Test in the Ophthalmic Market,"Journal of Health Economics 8:3 (December 1989).

"Tying Requirements in Markets with Many Sellers: The Contact Lens Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69 (February 1987).

“The Effect of Commercial Practice Restrictions: The Case of Optometry,” Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 29 (April 1986).

Health Care Quality, Prices, Information and Reputations

"Arrow and the Information Market Failure in Health Care: The Changing Content and Sources of Health Care Information," Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 26:5 (October 2001).

"The Relationships Between the Dimensions of Health Care Quality and Price: The Case of Eye Care," Medical Care 32:2 (February 1994).

“Consumer Information and Providers' Reputations: An Empirical Test in the Market for Outpatient Psychotherapy," Journal of Health Economics 9 (1990).

"Quality and Provider Choice: A Multinomial Logit-Least Squares Model with Selectivity," (with E. Savoca), Health Services Research 24:6 (February 1990).

Economics of Mental Health Care

"Competition and the Mental Health Care System," (with A. Cuellar) The American Journal of Psychiatry 166:3 (March 2009).

"Demand for Mental Health Services: An Episode of Treatment Approach," (with R. Scheffler and A. Cheadle), Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 55 (July 1989).