Paul Shafer

Paul Shafer is a visiting scholar at the Sanford School of Public Policy for 2026, sponsored by Professor Kate Bundorf. He is on sabbatical from Boston University, where he is an associate professor of health law, policy, and management and co-director of the Medicaid Policy Lab. His research focuses on how health insurance and social safety net policies affect health and equity. As a health economist, he is passionate about generating rigorous, timely, and policy-relevant evidence to ease administrative burdens, reduce economic deprivation, and improve health. He is also an investigator with the Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center at the VA Boston Healthcare System where he leads evaluations of policy and delivery innovations aimed at improving veterans’ access to care and health.

 

He is an associate editor of Health Affairs Scholar and an editorial board member for Health Services Research and the Journal of Healthcare Finance. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Commonwealth Fund, and Arnold Ventures among others. His work has been cited by former President Biden, White House, Congress, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Surgeon General, US Preventive Services Task Force, and National Academies along with major news outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, CNN, NBC News, and The Atlantic.

 

He teaches graduate courses in health policy and econometrics and has been recognized with teaching awards at Boston University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously, he served as a research economist at RTI International, junior fellow at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and research fellow at the Office of Personnel Management. He holds a BA and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.