Abigail R. Barker, PhD
Faculty Lead for Data and Methods, Center for Health Economics and Policy
- Email: arbarker@wustl.edu
Additional Titles: Research Assistant Professor, Brown School
Dr. Barker is affiliated with the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health. She also provides economic analysis for the Rural Policy Research Institute in the area of rural health policy. Her role in the Center for Health Economics and Policy includes helping social science and clinical researchers add cost and cost-effectiveness analyses to their work as a way of increasing policy relevance, as well as providing data visualization assistance to allow stakeholders to interact with policy data. Dr. Barker’s current work focuses on understanding how markets can be successfully integrated into the healthcare sector, using the ACA and Health Insurance Marketplace data as well as Medicare Advantage data to inform this question. Further, analyses of rising healthcare spending have prompted a new interest in food policy, as she works to understand how tax-and-subsidize policies can influence food choices and, ultimately, nutrition and health at the population level.