Andrew Olenski

Andrew Olenski joined the department as an assistant professor in 2023, after obtaining his Ph.D. in economics at Columbia University. His research on healthcare delivery and physician decision-making has been featured in many outlets, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. His current research studies the nursing home industry, using novel methods to measure provider quality, and examining the health consequences and policy implications of the ongoing contraction of the nursing home industry.

Education

• George Washington University, B.S. Economics
• Columbia University, Ph.D. Economics

Research Interests

• Health economics
• Industrial organization
• Applied microeconomics

Working Papers

• Reallocation and the (In)efficiency of Exit in the U.S. Nursing Home Industry, Revise and Resubmit, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
• Tunneling and Hidden Profits in Health Care (with Ashvin Gandhi). NBER Working Paper No. 32258

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Research in Economics

• Alleviating Worker Shortages Through Targeted Subsidies: Evidence from Incentive Payments in Health Care (with Ashvin Gandhi, Krista Ruffini, and Karen Shen). NBER Working Paper No. 32412. Forthcoming, Review of Economics and Statistics.
• Estimating Nursing Home Quality with Selection (with Szymon Sacher). Forthcoming, Review of Economics and Statistics.
• Common Practice: Spillovers from Medicare onto Private Health Care (with Michael Barnett and Adam Sacarny). American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 15(3): 65-88, 2023.

Research in Health Policy and Medicine

• Ly D, Essien U, Olenski AR, Jena AB. Affirmative Action Bans and Enrollment of Students from Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Groups in U.S. Public Medical Schools. Annals of Internal Medicine 2022.
• Olenski AR, Coussens S, Zimmerman A, Jena AB. Behavioral heuristics in coronary artery bypass graft surgery. New England Journal of Medicine (Correspondence) 382:8, 778-779, 2020.
• Sacarny A, Olenski AR, Barnett M. Association of quetiapine overuse letters with prescribing by physician peers of targeted recipients. JAMA Psychiatry 76(6), pp. E1-2, 2019.
• Barnett M, Olenski AR, Thygeson M, Ishisaka D, Wong S, Jena AB, Mehrotra A. A health plan's formulary led to reduced use of extended-release opioids, but did not lower overall opioid use. Health Affairs 37(9), pp. 1509-1516, 2018.
• Jena AB, Olenski AR, Khullar D, Bonica A, Rosenthal H. Physicians' political preferences and the delivery of end of life care in the United States. The British Medical Journal (BMJ), 361:k1161, 2018.
• Jena AB, Olenski AR, Blumenthal DM, Yeh R, Goldman DP, Romley JH. Acute myocardial infarction mortality during dates of national interventional cardiology meetings. Journal of the American Heart Association, 117:e008230, 2018.
• Jena AB, Olenski AR. Reductions in firearm injuries during NRA annual conventions. New England Journal of Medicine (Correspondence), 378:9, 866-867, 2018.
• Jena AB, Olenski AR, Molitor D, Miller N. Association between rainfall and diagnoses of joint or back pain: retrospective claims analysis. The British Medical Journal (BMJ), 359:j5326, 2017.
• Blumenthal DM, Olenski AR, Tsugawa Y, Jena AB. Association between treatment by locum tenens internal medicine physicians and 30-day mortality among hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 318(21), pp. 2119-2129, 2017.
• Khullar D, Blumenthal D, Olenski AR, Jena AB. U.S. immigration policy and American medical research: the scientific contributions of foreign medical graduates. Annals of Internal Medicine (Ideas and Opinions), 167(7), 2017.
• Jena AB, Mann NC, Wedlund NC, Olenski AR. Delays in emergency care and mortality during major U.S. marathons. New England Journal of Medicine 376(15), pp.1441-1450, 2017.
• Barnett M, Olenski AR, Jena AB. Patient mortality during unannounced accreditation surveys at US hospitals. JAMA Internal Medicine 177(5), pp. 1-9, 2017.
• Barnett M, Olenski AR, Jena AB. Opioid-prescribing patterns of emergency physicians and risk of long-term use. New England Journal of Medicine 376(7), pp. 663-673, 2017.
• Blumenthal D, Olenski AR, Yeh R, DeFaria-Yeh D, Sarma A, Stefanescu-Schmidt A, Wood M, Jena AB. Sex differences in academic rank among cardiologists at U.S. medical schools in 2014. Circulation 135(6), pp. 506-517, 2017.
• Jena AB, Olenski AR, Blumenthal D. Sex differences in physician salary in U.S. public medical schools. JAMA Internal Medicine 176(9), pp. 1294-1304, 2016.
• Jena AB, Khullar D, Ho O, Olenski AR, Blumenthal D. Sex differences in academic rank in U.S. medical schools in 2014. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) 314(11), pp. 1149-1158, 2015.
• Olenski AR, Abola M, Jena AB. Do heads of government age more quickly? An observational study comparing mortality between elected leaders and runners-up in national elections of 17 countries. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) 351:h6424, 2015.