Tal Gross
Professor
Department of Markets, Public Policy & Law
Questrom School of Business
Boston University
I am a professor in the Department of Markets, Public Policy & Law at Boston University, an editor of the Journal of Health Economics, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. My research focuses on health insurance, health care markets, and household finance. I received my Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and my bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago. Before joining Boston University, I taught at the University of Miami and Columbia University. You can find my curriculum vitae here.
Textbook
“Better Health Economics: An Introduction for Everyone,” with Matthew Notowidigdo. A textbook published by University of Chicago Press. Available from the University of Chicago Press and Amazon. Please contact me if you are an instructor and would like a free copy or resources (slides, exams, handouts) for teaching health economics.
Current Research
“The Protective Effects of a Healthy Spouse: Medicare as the Family Member of Last Resort,” with Itzik Fadlon, Alex Hoagland, and Tim Layton. Manuscript.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #35784.
“Effects of Nursing Home Payment on Patient-Centered Outcomes for Older Adults and People with Dementia,” with Adam Sacarny, Maggie Shi, and David Silver.
Selected Publications
“Social Defaults and Plan Choice: The Case of Spousal Following,” with Tim Layton, Daniel Prinz, and Julia Yates. Conditionally accepted at American Economic Review: Insights. Manuscript.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #34137.
Featured in the November 2025 NBER Bulletin on Health.
“Regulated Revenues and Hospital Behavior: Evidence from a Medicare Overhaul,” with Adam Sacarny, Maggie Shi, and David Silver. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 106(6), 2024. Manuscript. Published Version.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #29023.
Non-technical summary from the BU Technology & Policy Research Initiative.
“The Liquidity Sensitivity of Healthcare Consumption: Evidence from Social Security Payments,” with Tim Layton and Daniel Prinz. American Economic Review: Insights, 4(2), 2022. Manuscript. Published Version.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #27977.
Non-technical summaries on The Hill and Harvard Business Review.
“The Economic Consequences of Bankruptcy Reform,” with Raymond Kluender, Feng Liu, Matthew Notowidigdo, and Jialan Wang. American Economic Review, 111(7), 2021. Manuscript. Published Version.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #26254.
Featured in the December 2019 NBER Digest.
“Disability and Distress: The Effect of Disability Programs on Financial Outcomes,” with Manasi Deshpande and Yalun Su. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 13(2), 2021. Manuscript. Online Appendix. Published Version.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #25642.
Previously circulated with the title: “Income-Support Programs and Financial Distress: Evidence from Disability Programs.”
Winner of the 2024 Best Paper Award for AEJ: Applied.
“The Marginal Propensity to Consume over the Business Cycle,” with Matthew Notowidigdo and Jialan Wang. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 12(2), 2020. Manuscript. Published Version.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #22518.
Winner of the Outstanding Paper Award in Financial Institutions, Midwest Finance Association 2017 Conference.
“The Effect of Pollution on Office Workers: Evidence from Call Centers in China,” with Tom Chang, Joshua Graff Zivin, and Matthew Neidell. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(1), 2019. Manuscript. Published Version.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #22328.
Media Coverage: Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, Yahoo, Vox EU.
Featured in the September 2016 NBER Digest.
“Hospitals as Insurers of Last Resort,” with Craig Garthwaite and Matthew Notowidigdo. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 10(1), 2018. (Lead article.) Manuscript. Published Version.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #21290.
Featured in the October 2015 NBER Digest.
Media Coverage: USA Today, Modern Healthcare, USA Today.
“Early Medicaid Expansion Associated With Reduced Payday Borrowing In California,” with Heidi Allen, Ashley Swanson, and Jialan Wang. Health Affairs, 36(10), 2017. Published Version.
“Particulate Pollution and the Productivity of Pear Packers,” with Tom Chang, Joshua Graff Zivin, and Matthew Neidell. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 8(3), 2016. Manuscript. Published Version. Corrigendum.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #19944.
Media Coverage: Washington Post; Business Insider.
“The Effect of Health Insurance on Emergency Department Visits: Evidence from an Age-Based Eligibility Threshold,” with Michael Anderson and Carlos Dobkin. Review of Economics and Statistics, 96(1), 2014. Manuscript. Published Version.
“Public Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Employment Lock,” with Craig Garthwaite and Matthew Notowidigdo. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(2), 2014. Manuscript. Online Appendix. Replication Kit. Published Version.
Featured in the October 2013 NBER Digest.
Media Coverage: NPR; BusinessWeek; The Economist.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #19220.
“Liquidity Constraints and Consumer Bankruptcy: Evidence from Tax Rebates,” with Matthew Notowidigdo and Jialan Wang. Review of Economics and Statistics, 96(3), 2014. Manuscript. Online Appendix. Published Version.
Featured in the June 2012 NBER Digest.
Media Coverage: Los Angeles Times; Huffington Post; Vox; Forbes; CNN.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #17807.
“Dangerous Liquidity and the Demand for Health Care: Evidence from the 2008 Stimulus Payments,” with Jeremy Tobacman. Journal of Human Resources, 49(2), 2014. Manuscript. Online Appendix. Published Version.
“What Happens the Morning After? The Costs and Benefits of Expanding Access to Emergency Contraception,” with Jeanne Lafortune and Corinne Low. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(1), 2014. Manuscript. Published Version.
Winner of the 2014 Raymond Vernon Memorial Award for the Best Research Article Published in JPAM.
“How Many Pears Would a Pear Packer Pack if a Pear Packer Could Pack Pears at Quasi-Exogenously Varying Piece Rates? An Empirical Evaluation of Inter-temporal Labor Supply,” with Tom Chang. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 99, 2014. (Lead article.) Manuscript. Published Version.
“The Effect of Health Insurance Coverage on the Use of Medical Services,” with Michael Anderson and Carlos Dobkin. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 4(1), 2012. Manuscript. Published Version.
Featured in the July 2010 NBER Digest.
Media Coverage: Washington Post.
Originally released as NBER Working Paper #15823.
“Health Insurance and the Consumer Bankruptcy Decision: Evidence from Expansions of Medicaid,” with Matthew Notowidigdo. Journal of Public Economics, 95(7–8), 2011. Manuscript. Published Version.
Media Coverage: Modern Healthcare.
Teaching & Resources
A LaTeX template for economics papers
Some advice on creating good graphs with Stata
A LaTeX template for paper exams
The case for active-learning exercises in class
Problem sets for teaching data analysis
If any instructors would like notes or slides to aid in teaching health economics or managerial economics, please contact me.