Rajiv Sharma is a Professor of Economics at Portland State University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Florida in 1998 and joined PSU in the same year. He specializes in microeconomics and health economics. He has collaborated extensively with physicians and has advised public agencies on health and economic issues. Since its start in 2013, Rajiv has led the Longitudinal Access to Physicians Study (LAPS). This study audits U.S. primary care physicians to determine the effects of state and federal policies on access to health care. Rajiv's work has been published in the RAND Journal of Economics, the Journal of Health Economics, and the American Journal of Public Health.
Rajiv teaches a wide-range of courses in health care economics and microeconomic theory. His current research interests reflect his specialization in health economics. They include access and disparities in health care, cost-effectiveness analysis of medical interventions and the patient-physician and medical decision-making. Because of his LAPS research, he has hired many research assistants to gather the data for the study.