Excellence in Research: Transforming Business and Healthcare


Academic research fuels innovation and discovery, leading to advancements in medicine, technology, and our understanding of the world. Olin faculty bring a unique lens to their research, collaborating across disciplines, with other WashU schools, with industry practitioners, and with governmental partners. Olin faculty have explored health-related areas such as infectious disease, mortality, and pharmaceutical distribution.

What makes a university great — and certainly what is a strength of Olin — is high-caliber research. Olin is already doing a variety of work in health. We can capitalize on our unique ability to connect academic concepts to pragmatic solutions for breakthroughs ranging from commercialization to policy improvements.

—Barton Hamilton, Robert Brookings Smith Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship

Examples of Our Health-Related Research


Ryan McDevitt, Professor of Economics

Ryan McDevitt, Professor of Economics
“Financial Ties, Market Structure, Commercial Prices, and Medical Director Compensation in Dialysis”
JAMA Health Forum

Ryan McDevitt, Professor of Economics

Ryan McDevitt, Professor of Economics
“How Should We Assess Quality of Health Care Services in Organizations Owned by Private Equity Firms?”
AMA Journal of Ethics

Ryan McDevitt, Professor of Economics

Ryan McDevitt, Professor of Economics
“Ambulance Taxis: The Impact of Regulation and Litigation on Health-Care Fraud”
Journal of Political Economy

Patrick Aguilar, Professor of Practice in Organizational Behavior and Managing Director of Health

Patrick Aguilar, Professor of Practice in Organizational Behavior and Managing Director of Health
“Private Equity in Heart Failure Care: Where Chronic Disease and Acute Financial Pressures Collide”
Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC)

Seth Carnahan, Associate Professor of Strategy

Seth Carnahan, Associate Professor of Strategy
“Patient-physician gender concordance and increased mortality among female heart attack patients”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Barton Hamilton, PhD, Robert Brookings Smith Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship

Barton Hamilton, PhD, Robert Brookings Smith Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship
“Health, Risky Behaviour and the Value of Medical Innovation for Infectious Disease”
Review of Economic Studies

Panos Kouvelis, Emerson Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain, Operations, and Technology

Panos Kouvelis, Emerson Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain, Operations, and Technology
“Drug Pricing for Competing Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Distributing through a Common PBM”
Production and Operations Management

Sydney Scott, Assistant Professor of Marketing

Sydney Scott, Assistant Professor of Marketing
“‘Good people don’t need medication:’ How moral character beliefs affect medical decision making.”
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Health Insights from Olin Scholars


Patrick Aguilar, Professor of Practice in Organizational Behavior and Managing Director of Health; Peter Boumgarden, Koch Family Professor in Family Enterprise

Patrick Aguilar, Professor of Practice in Organizational Behavior and Managing Director of Health
Peter Boumgarden, Koch Family Professor in Family Enterprise

“Public health and private equity: What the Walgreens buyout could mean for the future of pharmacy care”
The Conversation

Patrick Aguilar, Professor of Practice in Organizational Behavior and Managing Director of Health

Patrick Aguilar, Professor of Practice in Organizational Behavior and Managing Director of Health
“To address the pharmacy crisis, doctors should dispense some drugs”
Stat News