Jonathan Kolstad

Jonathan Kolstad is Professor holding the Henry J. Kaiser Chair at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business with joint appointments in Economic Analysis and Policy and the Department of Economics. He serves as founding director of the Center for Healthcare Marketplace Innovation and co-director of the Health Initiative at the UC Berkeley Opportunity Lab, while also contributing as core faculty in the Computational Precision Health Graduate Group (UC Berkeley/UCSF).

His educational background includes a PhD from Harvard University and BA from Stanford University, establishing foundational expertise in economic theory and empirical methods.

Kolstad's research integrates health economics, industrial organization, and public economics to address complex healthcare market dynamics. He pioneers applications of behavioral economics and machine learning to examine information asymmetries, incentive structures, and policy interventions—particularly in insurance markets, quality reporting systems, and medical decision-making. His work consistently leverages novel datasets and causal inference techniques to evaluate real-world policy impacts.

Recent publications reveal three dominant research trajectories: (1) malaria treatment optimization through provider/patient incentive alignment in developing nations, (2) socioeconomic determinants of health insurance choice using Dutch longitudinal data, and (3) structural analysis of ACA insurance exchanges and telehealth adoption patterns during the pandemic. These threads demonstrate his signature approach of merging theoretical microeconomics with high-impact policy evaluation.

His scientific recognition includes:

• Arrow Award (2014) for best health economics paper
• NIHCM Foundation Research Award (2016 and 2018)
• ASHEcon Medal (2018) for economists under 40

Kolstad mentors through courses like Big Data and Better Decisions and Health Economics, developing problem sets on Massachusetts health reform for graduate instruction. His entrepreneurial engagement spans co-founding Picwell (serving as Chief Data Scientist) and advising governments, corporations, and startups on healthcare innovation.

He leads the Center for Healthcare Marketplace Innovation in developing testable models for healthcare market transformation, while contributing to the Computational Precision Health Graduate Group's mission of integrating data science with clinical practice to improve population health outcomes.