Zachary Wagner

Zachary Wagner is an Associate Professor (Research) of Economics and Senior
Economist at the Center for Economic and Social Research at USC. His research
studies how people make decisions about health and health care around the globe, often using randomized experiments or quasi-experiments to measure the impact of various interventions. His expertise includes take-up of health technology, quality of care in low-income countries, disasters and health, health insurance for the poor, HIV/AIDS, child diarrhea, private sector health care, the opioid crisis, and family planning. He has led research projects around the world including Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Nigeria, Chad, and India. His current projects include an RCT in Nigeria to testing out an intervention to increase take-up of effective diarrhea treatment, interventions to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use in India, and several studies on the intersection of natural disasters and health. His research has been featured in leading journals including Science, Nature, The Lancet, BMJ, PLOS Medicine, Health Affairs, the Economic Journal, and AEJ: Economic Policy. Prior to joining USC, he was an Economist at RAND and postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University. His Ph.D. is in health policy (economics track) from UC Berkeley and he has a Master’s degree in international development from UC San Diego.