Dr. Abby Alpert

Biography

Abby Alpert is an Associate Professor of Health Care Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research interests encompass health economics, public economics, and pharmaceutical policy, particularly focusing on how government interventions affect pharmaceutical markets and the roles of the pharmaceutical industry in the opioid epidemic. Her recent work explores the impact of vertical integration on the Medicare prescription drug insurance market, the consequences of direct-to-consumer advertising on prescription drug spending, and how Medicaid utilization management policies affect access to prescription drugs among vulnerable populations. Alpert’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and she has been featured in media outlets including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Prior to joining Wharton, she served as an Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, and as an Associate Economist at the RAND Corporation. Alpert holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland and a BS in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Chicago. Her teaching includes courses that examine the management and economics of pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms in a global context.

Research Interests

Courses