Bhaven Sampat

Bhaven Sampat is an economist at Johns Hopkins University, with faculty appointments at the new School of Government and Policy and the Carey Business School. He is also a Research Associate in the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). He received his B.A., M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. (all in economics) from Columbia University.

His research focuses on the economics and political economy of innovation and innovation policy. Among other topics, he has studied US and global life science patent policy, the politics and economics of publicly funded science the roles of government in pharmaceutical innovation and the economic history of the US biomedical research enterprise. An overarching theme in his research is how science and technology policies can best be designed to contribute to improvements in health and other socio-economic outcomes.

Recent Publications

Hemphill, C.S. and Sampat, B.N., 2025. Patents, Innovation, and Competition in Pharmaceuticals: The Hatch-Waxman Act After 40 Years. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 39(2), pp.27-52. https://www.aeaweb.org/full_issue.php?doi=10.1257/jep.39.2#page=29

Gross, D.P. and Sampat, B.N., 2022. Crisis innovation policy from world war II to COVID-19. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, 1(1), pp.135-181. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/719253

Sampat, B.N. and Shadlen, K.C., 2021. The COVID-19 Innovation System: Article describes innovations that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Affairs, 40(3), pp.400-409. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ken-Shadlen/publication/349049932_The_COVID-19_Innovation_System_Article_discusses_innovations_that_emerged_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic/links/60814f028ea909241e1753fb/The-COVID-19-Innovation-System-Article-discusses-innovations-that-emerged-during-the-COVID-19-pandemic.pdf