PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
(* = paper uses data from Sharma-led Longitudinal Access to Physicians Study)
*Tinkler S, Walker B, Wisniewski J, Susu-Mago R, Stano M, and Sharma R The Effect of Medicaid Expansion on Racial/Ethnic and Gender Disparities in Access to Primary Care among Medicaid Patients. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 2025
*Walker B, Wisniewski J, Tinkler S, Stano M, and Sharma R. Patient preferences and physician availability based on physician nativity and international medical school attendance. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 2024.
*Walker B, Wisniewski J, Tinkler S, Torres J, and Sharma R. Identity and access: Gender-based preferences and physician availability in primary care. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 2024.
*Walker B, Wisniewski J, Tsai E, Tinkler S, and Sharma R. Patient Behavioral Strategies to Improve Access to Primary Care Appointments. Applied Economics Letters 2024.
Wisniewski J, Walker B, Patlola I, Sharma R and Tinkler S. Disparities in access to appointments for contraceptive services among Black, Hispanic, White, and recently incarcerated women in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Health Services Research 2024.
*Wisniewski J, Walker B, Tinkler S, Stano M, and Sharma R. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Primary Care Appointment Availability by Physician Age and Gender. Southern Economic Journal 29, 2023.
Walker B, Wisniewski J, Torres J, and Sharma R. Anticipatory Impacts of the Repeal of Roe v. Wade on Female College Applicants. Economics Letters 233, 2023.
Wisniewski J, Walker B, Patlola I, Sharma R. Disparities in Access to Primary Care Appointments Among Asian American Subgroups, and the Impact of Concordance. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 2023.
*Wisniewski J, Walker B, Tinkler S, Stano M, Sharma R. Mediators of discrimination in primary care appointment access. Economics Letters 200, 2021.
*Sharma R, Tinkler S, Mitra A, Susu-Mago R, Pal S, Stano M. State Medicaid fees and access to primary care physicians. Health Economics, 2018.
*Tinkler S, Sharma R, Pal S, Susu-Mago R, Stano M. Access to US primary care physicians for new patients concerned about smoking or weight. Preventive Medicine, 2018.
*Tinkler S, Sharma R, Pal S, Susu-Mago R, Stano M. Offers of appointments with nurse practitioners if a requested physician is unavailable. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners 29, 209-215, 2016.
*Sharma R, Mitra A, Stano M. Insurance, race/ethnicity, and sex in the search for new physician. Economics Letters 137, 150-153, 2015.
Vavrek D, Sharma R, Haas M. Cost analysis related to dose-response of spinal manipulative therapy for chronic low back pain: outcomes from a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 37, 300-311, 2014.
Sharma R, Stano M. Implications of an economic model of health states worse than dead. Journal of Health Economics 29, 536-540, 2010.
Dickinson KC, Sharma R, Duckart JP, Corson K, Gerrity MS, Dobscha SK. VA Healthcare costs of a collaborative intervention for chronic pain in primary care. Medical Care 48, 38-44, 2010.
Sharma R, Haas M, Stano M, Spegman A, Gehring R. Determinants of costs and pain improvement for medical and chiropractic care of low back pain. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 32, 252-61, 2009.
Sharma R, Stano M, Gehring R. Short-term fluctuations in hospital demand: Implications for admissions, discharges, and discriminatory behavior. RAND Journal of Economics 39, 586-606, 2008.
Haas M, Sharma R, Stano M. Relative cost-effectiveness of medical and chiropractic care for acute and chronic low back pain. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 28, 555-63, 2005.
Haas M, Groupp E, Muench J, Kraemer D, Brummel-Smith K, Sharma R, Ganger B, Attwood M, Fairweather A. Chronic disease self-management program for low back pain in the elderly. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 28, 228-37, 2005.
Sharma R, Stano M, Haas M, Adjusting to changes in health: Implications for cost-effectiveness analysis. Journal of Health Economics 23, 335-351, 2004.
Sharma R, Haas M, Stano M. Patient attitudes, insurance, and other determinants of self-referral to medical and chiropractic physicians. American Journal of Public Health 93, 2111-2117, 2003.
Sharma R, Health care payment systems: Cost and quality incentives—comment. Journal of Economics and Management Strategy 7, 127-37, 1998.
Principles of Economics Videos by Rajiv Sharma, Professor of Economics, Portland State University
These videos describe the fundamentals of economics that, in my opinion, every student who takes an economics course at Portland State University should be familiar with. The videos are meant to be watched in sequence to optimize your learning experience.
To get the most out of these videos, you should take extensive notes while watching them (this is required of students enrolled in my classes). The notes should be a great deal more detailed than what is written down in the videos. You will have to pause videos in order to take notes. If there is something you don’t understand, please rewind the video and watch again the portion that you don’t understand. If you still do not understand the argument, please raise it with your teacher.
1. Fundamental principles and choice. (3:08 minutes)
2. The cost of something is what you give up to obtain it.(3:55 minutes)
3. Incentives affect behavior. (4:34 minutes)
4. Factors other than incentives also affect behavior (1:11 minutes)
5. What makes a country wealthy? (9:27 minutes)
6. Determinants of productivity (6:15 minutes)
7. Human capital and the value of reducing risks to life. (7:30 minutes)
8. Human capital, productivity, and the standard of living. (7:15 minutes)
9. Human capital from an individual’s perspective. (3:04 minutes)
10. Gains from trade arise due to specialization. (5:34 minutes)
11. Dealing with problems caused by trade. (4:57 minutes)
12. Markets are usually good at organizing economic activity. (7:53 minutes)
13. Government policy can help when markets fail to provide the correct information and incentives. (6:25 minutes)
14. One person’s spending is another person’s income. (5:33 minutes)
15. Sometimes, spending can get out of balance with the productive capacity of the economy.(3:40 minutes)
16. Changes in government spending can help to restore the balance between spending and productive capacity in the economy. (4:51 minutes)
17. Changes in interest rates by the Federal Reserve Bank can also help to restore the balance between spending and productive capacity. (3:07 minutes)
18. Some inequality is necessary for efficiency, but excessive inequality hurts efficiency and productivity. (5:42 minutes)