Zack Cooper

Zack Cooper is an Associate Professor of Public Health and Economics at Yale University, and Director of Health Policy at Yale’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy. His research focuses on data-driven analysis of healthcare economics, including healthcare spending trends, hospital competition, insurance market dynamics, and policy interventions to reduce costs without compromising quality. He holds dual appointments in the Yale School of Public Health and the Institution for Social and Policy Studies.

Cooper earned an AB from the University of Chicago and a PhD from the London School of Economics, where he received the Richard Titmuss Prize for Best PhD Thesis. He is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a recipient of the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. His work has been published in leading journals like the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Research Interests: Cooper’s work examines how healthcare prices and spending affect the broader economy, drivers of healthcare cost growth, and the role of competition in healthcare markets. Notable projects include the 1% Steps for Health Care Reform initiative, which proposes actionable policies to reduce U.S. healthcare costs by $400 billion annually through 16 specific interventions.

Key Articles: His recent research includes analyses of hospital mergers’ impacts on employment, antitrust enforcement gaps in healthcare markets, and the economic consequences of surprise medical billing. These studies highlight systemic issues in healthcare pricing and advocate for evidence-based policy reforms.

Awards & Recognition:

• Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2019)
• Richard Titmuss Prize (London School of Economics)
• ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance

Advocacy & Grants: Cooper’s interdisciplinary research bridges academia and policy, with frequent testimony to federal agencies like the FTC and DOJ. He leads the Healthcare Pricing Project, a platform analyzing hospital pricing trends. His work often involves collaborations with policymakers to translate research into actionable reforms.

Labs/Teams: Cooper directs the Health Policy Division at the Tobin Center and collaborates with the Institution for Social and Policy Studies on projects linking economic research to public health outcomes.