Bhaven N. Sampat is an economist focusing on the economics, law, history, and political economy of science and technology.

Bhaven N. Sampat is a Professor at Johns Hopkins University, with a joint appointment in the 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).

Sampat’s research examines how policies and institutions can promote scientific progress and shape innovation to address public problems.

His current work focuses on the economics and political economy of science funding; the history of NIH research policy; pharmaceutical patent policy, innovation, and competition; and measuring links between publicly funded science and patents, drugs, and other socioeconomic outcomes. Beyond policy for science, he is also interested in science for policy: how scientific evidence and expertise are used in public policymaking. Across these areas, he seeks to bring historical perspective and empirical evidence to bear on current and longstanding questions in science, innovation, and public policy. 

Sampat received his BA, MA, MPhil, and PhD, all in economics, from Columbia University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Scholars in Health Policy Research program at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, he spent much of his academic career at Columbia University, where he was Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management and also taught at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He has also held faculty appointments at Arizona State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as visiting positions at NYU Law School and NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, among other institutions. He was a founding member of NBER’s Innovation Information Initiative (I3); co-leads an NBER network on assessing the U.S. medical innovation system; is an affiliated professor in the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Science for Progress Initiative; and serves on the Board of Reviewing Editors at Science.