Summary
Leemore Dafny is a Partner in the Antitrust and Competition and Healthcare Practices. She is also a tenured economist at the Harvard Business School, where she holds the position of Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration. Dr. Dafny is also a Member of the Faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She advises doctoral candidates in several university programs, co-directed the PhD program in Business Economics from 2018 to 2020, and serves on the faculty of the interdisciplinary PhD Program in Health Policy. She is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Board member of the American Society of Health Economists and the Health Care Cost Institute, and a member of the Panel of Health Advisers to the Congressional Budget Office.
In 2012–2013, Dr. Dafny served as Deputy Director for Health Care and Antitrust at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics, a newly created position designed to enhance the agency’s efforts to promote competition in the healthcare sector. In her FTC role, Dr. Dafny oversaw a staff of more than 50 economists, investigating cases and advising on competitive issues ranging from effects of provider consolidation to reverse payment settlements in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Dafny has been retained in several healthcare matters, including both provider and insurer mergers. She has also submitted public comments and amicus briefs in several cases.
Dr. Dafny’s academic research focuses on competitive interactions among payers and providers of healthcare services, with an emphasis on antitrust, competitive strategy, and public policy. Notably, Dr. Dafny’s research on health insurance markets was instrumental to policymakers as they developed institutions and policies central to President Obama’s healthcare reform law. Her work has been published in leading journals including the American Economic Review and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), and featured in outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. Dr. Dafny has won numerous awards for her MBA teaching and advises doctoral dissertations. She also serves as editor or associate editor of three academic journals, and is the lead advisor for the “New Marketplace” segment of NEJM Catalyst, a multimedia platform devoted to the exchange of ideas for improving healthcare. She has testified on competition issues to both houses of Congress regarding the impact of health insurance consolidation on consumers.
Dr. Dafny advises companies, government agencies, and nonprofits on a variety of issues including antitrust matters, strategic decisions, and public policy and has been named among Who’s Who Legal's Competition Economists since 2018.
Education
PhD, Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
AB, Economics, Harvard University, summa cum laude
Selected Work
Selected Experience
- Submitted expert and rebuttal reports, provided deposition testimony, and testified in federal court on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission in its challenge to the proposed acquisition of Englewood Health by Hackensack Meridian Health.
- Developed a model for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to simulate the outcomes of alternative plan menus for enrollees. Presented results to the Board of Administration.
- Submitted expert report and provided deposition testimony on monopoly power, monopsony power, and exclusionary conduct on behalf of Steward Health Care in Steward Health Care System LLC et al. v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island.
- Retained by the Federal Trade Commission to analyze the competitive effects of a Texas Medical Board rule requiring that physicians meet face to face with patients before offering certain services such as prescribing medication via telemedicine.