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Robin S.

Lee

Professor of Economics
Department of Economics, Harvard University

Robin S. Lee is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University. His research lies primarily within the field of industrial organization, with much of his work examining how firms bargain, contract and form supply relationships in imperfectly competitive markets. Other topics covered include vertical integration, mergers, and exclusive dealing in media and in multi-sided/platform markets; insurer-provider consolidation, narrow networks, and selective contracting in health care markets; and market design innovation in financial markets.

Professor Lee received his A.B. and A.M. in Economics and his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard. He is a co-editor of American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a recipient of the Econometric Society's Frisch Medal.

Research fields: industrial organization, applied microeconomic theory, health economics.


» Curriculum Vitae

RefereedPublications

13. A Theory of Stock Exchange Competition and Innovation: Will the Market Fix the Market? (with Eric Budish and John Shim), forthcoming at Journal of Political Economy.
Available as NBER Working Paper 25855.
» Online Appendix
» Coverage: Bloomberg (Matt Levine), SEC Commissioner Speech

12. Health Insurance Menu Design for Large Employers
(with Kate Ho), forthcoming at RAND Journal of Economics.
» Online Appendix

11. The Price Effects of Cross-Market Mergers: Theory and Evidence from the Hospital Industry
(with Leemore Dafny and Kate Ho), Summer 2019, RAND Journal of Economics, 50(2): 286-325.
» Coverage: APM Marketplace
» Best Antitrust Article on Mergers, American Antitrust Institute, 2019

10. Equilibrium Insurer-Provider Networks: Bargaining and Exclusion in Health Care Markets
(with Kate Ho), February 2019, American Economic Review, 109(2): 473-522.
» Online Appendix
» Non-Technical Summary: Microeconomic Insights

9. "Nash-in-Nash" Bargaining: A Microfoundation for Applied Work
(with Allan Collard-Wexler and Gautam Gowrisankaran), February 2019, Journal of Political Economy, 127(1): 163-195.
» Online Appendix

8. The Welfare Effects of Vertical Integration in Multichannel Television Markets
(with Gregory Crawford, Michael Whinston and Ali Yurukoglu), May 2018, Econometrica, 86(3): 891-954.
» Supplemental Material
» Non-Technical Summaries: Microeconomic Insights, Competition Policy International
» Best Paper Award, Association of Competition Economics, 2019

7. Interviewing in Two-Sided Matching Markets
(with Michael Schwarz), Fall 2017, Rand Journal of Economics, 48(3): 835-855.

6. Hospital and Physician Prices and Treatment Choice in Labor and Delivery
(with Kyna Fong and Patricia Foo), Summer 2017, American Journal of Health Economics, 3(3): 422-453.

5. Insurer Competition in Health Care Markets
(with Kate Ho), March 2017, Econometrica, 85(2): 379-417.
» Supplemental Material
» Non-Technical Summaries: Microeconomic Insights, LSE Business Review, Vox EU
» Frisch Medal, Econometric Society, 2020

4. Competing Platforms
Fall 2014, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 23(3): 507-526.

3. Vertical Integration and Exclusivity in Platform and Two-Sided Markets
December 2013, American Economic Review, 103(7): 2960-3000.
» Online Appendix

2. Exclusivity and Control
(with Andrei Hagiu), Fall 2011, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 20(3): 679-708.
» Online Appendix

1. Multiple Equilibria and Selection by Learning in an Applied Setting
(with Ariel Pakes), July 2009, Economic Letters, 104(1): 13-16.

OtherPublications/Writings

7. Structural Empirical Analysis of Contracting in Vertical Markets
(with Michael Whinston and Ali Yurukoglu), 2021, Handbook of Industrial Organization, Volume 4, eds. Ali Hortacsu, Kate Ho and Alessandro Lizzeri, Elsevier.

6. Narrow Medical Provider Networks: Welfare Implications and Approaches to Market Design
(with Kate Ho), 2016, More Equal by Design: Economic Design Responses to Inequality, eds. Scott Duke Kominers and Alex Teytelboym, Oxford University Press.

5. Empirical Models of Bilateral Contracting
May 2015, Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, eds. Robert A. Scott and Stephen M. Kosslyn, Wiley.

4. Home Videogame Platforms
August 2012, The Oxford Handbook of the Digital Economy, eds. Martin Peitz and Joel Waldfogel.

3. Price Discrimination in Service Industries
(with Anja Lambrecht, Katja Seim, Naufel J. Vilcassim, Amar Cheema, Yuxin Chen, Gregory Crawford, Kartik Hosanagar, Raghuram Iyengar, Oded Koenigsberg, Eugenio Miravete, Ozge Sahin), June 2012, Marketing Letters, 23(2): 423-438.

2. Subsidizing Creativity through Network Design: Zero Pricing and Net Neutrality
(with Tim Wu), Summer 2009, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(3): 61-76.

1. Signaling Preferences in Interviewing Markets
(with Michael Schwarz), September 2007, in Computational Social Systems and the Internet, ed. by P. Cramton, R. Müller, E. Tardos, and M. Tennenholtz, no. 07271 in Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Dagstuhl, Germany.

WorkingPapers

Contracting over Rebates: Formulary Design and Pharmaceutical Spending (with Kate Ho), 2022.

Markov-Perfect Network Formation: An Applied Framework for Bilateral Oligopoly and Bargaining in Buyer-Seller Networks
(with Kyna Fong), 2013.

IndustrialOrganization Courses: Undergraduate

Econ1640, Industrial Organization (Fall 2024)

IndustrialOrganization Courses: Graduate (PhD)

Econ2610, Industrial Organization I (Fall 2023)

Econ2611, Industrial Organization II (Spring 2024)
(Taught by Myrto Kalouptsidi and Ariel Pakes)

Seminars&Workshops

Harvard Seminar in IO
Fall 2023: Monday 4:30-5:45

Econ3009, Graduate Student Workshop in IO
Fall 2023: Wednesday 1:30-2:45

Econ2909, Graduate Student Reading Group in IO
Fall 2023: Wednesday 10:30-11:30