Handel, Ben

Ben Handel is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California at Berkeley and Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). He is a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Economics and participated in the 2010 Review of Economics Studies European Tour. His research focuses on the microeconomics of consumer choice and market structure in the health care sector, with an emphasis on health insurance markets. His most recent research has emphasized the important role that consumer choice frictions, such as inertia and limited information, can have when assessing the welfare outcomes of different regulatory policies in health insurance markets. In addition, his work studies incentive design and adoption of information technology by medical providers. Dr. Handel has partnered with a range of large firms and policy organizations in the health care sector to study questions in these areas. He completed his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University in 2010, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2011. He received an A.B. in economics from Princeton University in 2004.