Cornell University Department of Economics

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Welcome.

I am a Ph.D. Candidate at Cornell University in the field of economics working under the direction of professors in the Departments of Economics and Policy Analysis and Management. My fields of interest are industrial organization, health economics, and applied econometrics. Profs. Sean Nicholson, Don Kenkel, and Claudio Lucarelli comprise my Graduate Committee. Further information concerning my research and teaching may be found on the appropriate page using the menu.

Job Market Paper

"Perception Spillovers Between Bundled Goods: A Model of Physician Learning from Chemotherapy Choice"

Abstract: When consumers evaluate a product that is part of a bundle of goods, they can learn about the value of other, similar bundles. Such perception spillovers affct the adoption rate of new products, particularly for entrants that are strong complements to available goods. I extend current models of consumer behavior by developing a Bayesian model of learning which allows across-alternative perception spillovers in the context of chemotherapy for colorectal cancer. Using cancer surveillance data with patient and physician characteristics, I estimate a model of treatment choice to test whether there are informational spillovers across chemotherapy regimens. Despite sharing their major component, regimens entering the market in 1991 were not initially considered by physicians to be significantly correlated (ρ = 0.02). In contrast, physicians' initial beliefs for those regimens with irinotecan, introduced in 1996, exhibited considerable correlation (ρ = 0.71); physicians updated their beliefs for both regimens from experiences with either. Simulated counterfactuals demonstrate that learning and spillovers mitigate the costs of uncertainty by nearly half. These results provide a richer perspective for consumer learning; in particular, physicians use patient feedback to update their beliefs about regimen quality, even across non-prescribed regimens.