Maura Coughlin, Ph.D., is a Baker Institute Rice faculty scholar at the Center for Health and Biosciences and an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Rice University. Her research is primarily at the intersection of health economics and industrial organization, with a focus on the structure and competition of health care markets. Her current work includes evaluating the formation and equity impacts of hospital-pharmacy contracts in the U.S. 340B Drug Pricing Program.

Some of Coughlin’s other recent work has explored the impact on health outcomes and spending of the recent expansion of high capability trauma centers in Texas. She also has current projects estimating the demand for health insurance in complex choice environments where standard economics models may not rationalize plan choice patterns seen in data. She uses advanced econometric methods to estimate risk aversion in such insurance markets while relaxing some assumptions commonly imposed in standard models.

Coughlin received her Ph.D. in economics in 2020 from Cornell University. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a research analyst at The Brattle Group focusing on economic competition and antitrust. She received her bachelor’s degree in economics and international studies from Johns Hopkins University.

Contact at maura.coughlin@rice.edu or 847-404-3697.