Biography

David S. and Ann M. Barlow Professor in Management, Graduate School of Business; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; Professor (by courtesy) of Health Research and Policy, School of Medicine

An expert on health policy and health care finance, Daniel P. Kessler’s scholarship is particularly timely. His recent book, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Five Steps to a Better Health Care System (with John Cogan and R. Glenn Hubbard), outlines how market-based health care reform in the U.S. can help fix our system's current problems. His recent research examines how tax policy affects medical spending. His research interests also include empirical studies in antitrust law and law and economics.

Currently he is investigating how vertical integration and other shared ownership structures in markets for health services affect the cost and quality of care. A senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor of health research and policy (by courtesy) with the Stanford School of Medicine, Professor Kessler ’93 has been on the Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty for 15 years—and now brings to the law school a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective to his teaching. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Professor Kessler has won awards for his advising and research from Stanford, the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, and the International Health Economics Association. He has received grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the California HealthCare Foundation. He has served as a consultant to corporations, foundations, and the governments of the United States and Canada. He has taught courses in health economics, public policy, and antitrust law at Stanford, Harvard, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has published numerous papers in economics journals and law reviews. He has also appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and written several articles on health reform for The Wall Street Journal and Health Affairs.

Key Works

• Daniel P. Kessler and David Brady, Putting the Public’s Money Where Its Mouth Is: Consumers' Enthusiasm for Health Reform, Health Affairs (2009).
• Daniel P. Kessler and Christopher Afendulis, Tradeoffs from Integrating Diagnosis and Treatment in Markets for Health Care, American Economic Review (2007).
• Daniel P. Kessler and David Becker, The Effects of the US Malpractice System on the Cost and Quality of Care in Medical Malpractice and the US Health Care System: New Century, Different Issues, eds. William Sage and Rogan Kirsch, Cambridge University Press (2006).
• Daniel P. Kessler and Mark McClellan, Do Doctors Practice Defensive Medicine?, Quarterly Journal of Economics (1996).

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Health Care Regulation, Finance and Policy
• Tax Policy

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Daniel P. Kessler, ObamaCare's Bogus Cost Savings, Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2012, p. A11.
• Daniel P. Kessler and John B. Taylor, Medicare Reform: Obama vs. Ryan, Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2011, p. A15.
• Daniel P. Kessler, How Health Reform Punishes Work, Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2011, p. A15.
• John F. Cogan, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel P. Kessler, Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise: 5 Steps to a Better Healthcare System, 2nd edition, Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press; Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 2011.
• John F. Cogan, Glenn Hubbard and Daniel Kessler, ObamaCare and the Truth About Cost Shifting, Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2011, p. A15.
• Daniel P. Kessler, Introduction, in Regulation versus Litigation: Perspectives from Economics and Law, Daniel P. Kessler, editor, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
• Daniel P. Kessler (editor), Regulation versus Litigation: Perspectives from Economics and Law, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
• David Brady, Daniel Kessler and Douglas Rivers, Voters on ObamaCare: Informed and Opposed, Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2010, p. A19.
• David Brady, Daniel Kessler, and Douglas Rivers, ObamaCare and the Independent Vote, Wall Street Journal Online, June 21, 2010.
• John F. Cogan, Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel Kessler, A Better Way to Reform Health Care, Wall Street Journal, February 25, 2010, pg. A13.