Harvard Medical School

Position Title/Short Description

Full Text of JOE Listing:

Position Description
As part of its Marshall J. Seidman Fellowship Program to support impactful health policy research, the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School seeks a postdoctoral fellow with a specialty in health economics to lead and collaborate on research examining competition and regulation in the U.S. pharmaceutical market under the mentorship of Prof. Luca Maini.
The fellow will contribute to empirical projects that evaluate how policies and market structure affect drug prices, utilization, innovation, and spending, with an emphasis on rigorous economic analysis. This position provides opportunities to collaborate with the Department’s interdisciplinary faculty —including economists, physicians, statisticians, and social scientists—on projects that bridge methods, policy, and practice.
This role will involve designing and executing empirical studies of pharmaceutical competition, pricing, and regulation. The fellow will apply advanced econometric methods to administrative and other large-scale datasets—particularly claims data—to support policy-relevant research on competition and regulation in the U.S. pharmaceutical market. Responsibilities will also include preparing publication-quality figures and drafting manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed journals.

Basic Qualifications
Ph.D. in areas such as economics, statistics, biostatistics, computer science or a related quantitative field

Additional Qualifications
Advanced programming and analytical skills (including R, Python, and SAS or Stata)
Experience with Medicare claims data
Demonstrated expertise in causal inference and high-dimensional risk adjustment/predictive modeling
Clear scientific writing and communication, an ability to work both independently and in teams, and a track record of publications

Special Instructions
Please include: CV, one selected publication, cover letter and names/contact information for two people who have agreed to serve as a reference.
This position is expected to start on or around July 1, 2026. This is a one-year term position from the date of hire, with the possibility of a second-year contingent upon work performance, business need and continued funding to support the position.
With this appointment, you are represented by the Harvard Academic Workers (HAW) – UAW for purposes of collective bargaining and matters affecting your compensation and working conditions.
Harvard has an equal employment opportunity policy that outlines our commitment to prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or identified in the university’s non-discrimination policy.