Herman R. Smith Research Professor in Hospital and Health Services
Director, Program on Healthcare, Kellogg Northwestern University

Professor Garthwaite is the Herman R. Smith Research Professor in Hospital and Health Services and the Director of the Program on Healthcare at Kellogg (HCAK). He is an applied microeconomist whose research examines focuses on the health and biopharmaceutical sectors.

His recent work has focused on the private sector effects of the Affordable Care Act, including the labor supply effects of large insurance expansions, the changes in uncompensated hospital care resulting from public insurance expansions, and the responses of non-profit hospitals to financial shocks. In prior work, he has examined the impact of government cash assistance programs on health and the effect of changes in expected mortality from the emergence of crack-cocaine markets on educational attainment.
Professor Garthwaite also studies questions of pricing and innovation in the biopharmaceutical sector. In this area he has examined the effect of expanded patent protection on pricing in the Indian pharmaceutical market, the innovation response of United States pharmaceutical firms to increases in demand, and the relationship between health insurance expansions and high drug prices.
His research has appeared in journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Economic Review, the Review of Economics and Statistics and Health Affairs.

He is a frequent commentator on a variety of healthcare and biopharma topics appearing regularly in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and Vox. He has also appeared as a guest on various television and radio shows such as Nightly Business Report, Squawk Box, and NPR Marketplace. In 2015, Professor Garthwaite was named one of Poet and Quants 40 Best under 40 Business School Professors.

Garthwaite received a B.A. and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan and his PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland. Prior to receiving his PhD, he served in a variety of public policy positions including the Director of Research for the Employment Policies Institute. He has testified before the United States House of Representatives and several state legislatures on matters related to the minimum wage, health care reforms, and recent efforts at vertical integration in health care.