Laurence Baker, Ph.D.

Laurence Baker, Ph.D., is professor of health research and policy and chief of Health Services Research at the Stanford University School of Medicine.  He also holds appointments in the Stanford Department of Economics, the Stanford Center for Health Policy, and the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

Dr. Baker is an economist interested in the organization and economic performance of the U.S. health care system.  A large portion of his work examines the ways in which the incentives and organizational structures of health plans influence health care delivery, costs and outcomes, and the determinants and effects of technology diffusion in medicine.  His work also includes studies of quality of care in hospitals, health information technology, Medicare and Medicaid policy, and physician labor markets.  His current work focuses on effects of changes in the size and organization of physician practice on the costs and quality of care.

Dr. Baker has served as a principal investigator on several HCFO grants since the mid-1990s.  Topics have included how HMO market penetration influences the adoption and use of MRI technologies; how expansions in Medicaid managed care affect children’s access to and use of care; the strengths and weaknesses of different measures of managed care activity; the sources of cost growth among the privately insured; and whether managed care has spillover effects in market areas that affect Medicare fee-for-service cancer patients. 

A longtime member of AcademyHealth, Dr. Baker sits on the organization’s Board of Directors.  He is also a senior associate editor of Health Services Research, one of the official journals of AcademyHealth.

Dr. Baker received his B.A. from Calvin College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.

Additional information about Dr. Baker's HCFO-funded work is available here.