Martin Gaynor

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Kate Ho, a brilliant scholar and a wonderful colleague. She is gone far too soon.

Competition in Health Insurance Markets Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

New paper out with Amanda Starc on competition in health insurance markets, in particular on the complicated ways in which asymmetric information and competition interact (spoiler: things aren’t going so well). www.nber.org/papers/w34928

Health Care Has Become the Lifeblood of the Labor Market

What’s missing from this picture is that growth in health care jobs isn’t entirely a good thing. We spend too much on health care, which means fewer jobs in other sectors, so growth in health care jobs is crowding out other, higher value, employment. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/b...

Father’s side: Horse trader (old country), sweatshop worker, failed chicken seller, odd jobs, laundry worker, laundry owner.
Mother’s side: Tailor (old country), bricklayer (then the depression…), odd jobs, noodle seller, kosher food wholesaler.

As if Israel could somehow get the US to do something it doesn’t want to do. This will unleash even more antisemitism, and is very dangerous indeed.

Well - badness actually.

Antisemitic messages, threat toward mayor broadcast over Pittsburgh emergency communication channels Channel 11 listened to the recorded audio files and heard Nazi-related songs, messages praising Hitler and a threat toward “the mayor of Pittsburgh.”

It just keeps getting worse and worse, and I don’t think we’re at all close to hitting the bottom. www.wpxi.com/news/local/a...

Happy Lunar New Year to all our friends and neighbors who are celebrating!

What could possibly go wrong…? This is patently insane.

#econsky

It was a real pleasure to talk with @anne-m-burton.bsky.social about competition in health care, having had the opportunity to serve the country, the founding of the Health Care Cost Institute, the virtues of a career path with twists & turns, & what is true success. www.ashecon.org/newsletter/i...

New A.C.A. Plans Could Increase Family Deductibles to $31,000

$31K before your plan pays a dime? That’s not insurance for most people.
“New A.C.A. Plans Could Increase Family Deductibles to $31,000” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/h...

The administration is trying to aggressively escalate its coercive power over the American people.

100%. Thank you.

Seems like the FBI Director should be impeached & removed from office if Trump won't fire him

DoJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as officers’ lies are exposed in court String of embarrassing defeats for prosecutors as experts condemn DoJ effort to cast people as ‘violent perpetrators’

"In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases have resulted in no charges; in 13 cases, charges were filed and dismissed; and five charged cases were still pending. . . there have been no convictions.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Kevin Hassett has lost whatever remaining shreds of credibility he had as an economist, not to mention his soul. Nothing he says should be given any attention or credence whatsoever.

I’m delighted to have the opportunity to discuss value based care and consolidation with Liz Fowler, Andy Ryan, Dan Polsky, and Amit Jain, MD MBA on March 20, 12-1pm ET for what should prove a stimulating and illuminating discussion. Join us! hbhi.jhu.edu/events/value...

Kinda weird that the party that controls the House, the Senate, and the White House claims there's rampant voter fraud.

Happy Lunar New Year, Ramadan Mubarak, Rosh Chodesh Adar Sameach, and a meaningful Ash Wednesday to all my friends and neighbors who are observing!

“In Pittsburgh we don’t build walls, we build bridges.” Mayor @coreyoconnorpa.bsky.social. Inspiring Neighbors of Steel gathering celebrating Pittsburgh’s diversity and unity for Presidents Day. Thanks to Rev. @liddybarlow.bsky.social Rev. Natalie Hall R’ Seth Adelson & others for making it happen.

Re antisemitic lies about the Talmud (increasingly common these days, even though they’re recycled from hundreds of years ago).

Ever listened to jazz/blues/rock & roll?
Ever had pizza, or a hamburger? (Hamburg, get it?)

If so, you (unlike this fool) know that American culture is NOT an "English-Scots-Irish" monolith.

Yes, we will fight to defend America—from hateful supremacists and their numb ignorance.

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Pittsburgh & SW PA folks - come observe Presidents’ Day by celebrating and supporting your neighbors! Neighbors together make a neighborhood, and neighborhoods together make a community. Let’s show our unity as “Neighbors of Steel.” Tomorrow, 12-1, Forbes and Murray, Squirrel Hill.

There you have it.

👏 👏 👏 🪑

US antitrust chief Gail Slater ousted from Trump justice department Exclusive: Decision comes after Slater lost the support of JD Vance and Pam Bondi, the attorney general

If you’re forced out by the likes of Pam Bondi and JD Vance not only must you have some integrity, you must be doing something right. Unfortunately antitrust at DOJ will now likely headed by someone with no integrity at all. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Trump admin moves to finalize return of Schedule F Officials estimate that around 50,000 federal workers will be stripped of their civil service protections beginning in around a month, as unions, employee associations and good government groups decry...

The Trump administration moves to strip 50,000 agency staff of civil service protections & give himself the power to fire them without just cause.

This...
www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

R&R = read and regret.

Journal of Economic Perspectives Vol. 40 No. 1 Winter 2026

This issue has an excellent symposium on competition in labor markets, with great pieces by Ellie Prager on antitrust in labor markets (lots of unsettled issues) and @evanpstarr.bsky.social on noncompetes, as well as others. www.aeaweb.org/issues/836