Sara Fisher Ellison

Education and Career

Sara Fisher Ellison pursued her BSc in Honors Mathematics and Honors Statistics with Distinction from Purdue University in 1987. She acquired a Diploma of Advanced Study in Mathematical Statistics from Cambridge University in 1988.

Sara continued her education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She acquired her Ph.D. in Economics with primary her fields in Industrial Organization and Econometrics/Statistics and secondary fields in Microeconomic Theory, Finance, and Political Economy.

From 1992 to 1994, Ellison worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research as a research economist for Productivity Program. In 1995, she joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a visiting assistant professor (1995-96), where she continued her career as a lecturer (1997-99) and a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics (1999 – present). In 1996-97, she was a senior lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, MIT.

In 2021, Sara joined the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT as a faculty director of data, economics, and development policy micromasters and masters programs.

Awards and Honors

• 2021 — Levitan Teaching Prize, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
• 2020 — Distinguished Science Award, Purdue University
• 2017 — MITX Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs
• 2003–04 — Richard B. Fisher Member at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ
• 1999-2000 — Arch Shaw National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA

Research Interests

Sara Ellison’s research interests mostly focus on e-commerce and the pharmaceutical industry. Ellison’s work on the pharmaceutical sector addresses various issues: the manufacturers’ strategic behavior, demand characteristics for similar products, and the political economy of pricing. In e-commerce, she is well known for studying search and obfuscation. She has found evidence that Internet technologies make retailers’ obfuscation strategies easier and cheaper.

She has also worked in the sugar industry and contributed to finance and econometrics methodology research.

Publications

Academic Publications

• Ellison, Sara Fisher. “Internet Technology and its Role in the Price of Concert Tickets,” Competition Policy International, February 2021.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, et al. “An Economist’s Guide to Epidemiology Models of Infectious Disease,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 34, no. 4, November 2020, pp. 79-104.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, et al. “Policy Implications of Models of the Spread of Coronavirus: Perspectives and Opportunities for Economists,” Covid Economics, Issue 12, May 2020.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Glenn Ellison. “Search and Obfuscation in a Technologically Changing Retail Environment: Some Thoughts on Implications and Policy,” NBER Innovation Policy and the Economy, vol. 6, 2017.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher. “Price Search and Obfuscation: An Overview of the Theory and Empirics,” The Handbook on the Economics of Retailing and Distribution, 2016, pp. 287-305.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Wallace Mullin. “Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm,” Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, vol. 23, no. 2, 2014, pp. 465-481.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Glenn Ellison. “Strategic Entry Deterrence and the Behavior of Pharmaceutical Incumbents Prior to Patent Expiration,” American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, vol. 3, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1-36.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Christopher Snyder. “Countervailing Power in Wholesale Pharmaceuticals,” Journal of Industrial Economics, vol. 58, no. 1, 2010, pp. 32-53.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Glenn Ellison. “Tax Sensitivity and Home State Preferences in Internet Purchasing.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, vol. 1, no. 2, 2009, pp. 53-71.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Glenn Ellison. “Search, Obfuscation, and Price Elasticities on the Internet.” Econometrica, vol. 77, no. 2, 2009, pp. 427-452.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Catherine Wolfram. “Coordinating on Lower Prices: Pharmaceutical Pricing Under Political Pressure.” RAND Journal of Economics, vol. 37, no. 2, 2006.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Glenn Ellison. “Lessons About Markets from the Internet.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 19, no. 2, 2005.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Wallace Mullin. “Gradual Incorporation of Information: Pharmaceutical Stocks and the Evolution of Healthcare Reform.” Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 44, no. 1, 2001, pp. 89-129.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Glenn Ellison. “A Simple Framework for Nonparametric Specification Testing.” Journal of Econometrics, vol. 96, no. 1, 2000, pp. 1-23.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Judith Hellerstein. “The Economics of Antibiotics.” Measuring the Prices of Medical Treatments, edited by Jack Triplett, Brookings Institution Press, 1999.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, et al. “Characteristics of Demand for Pharmaceutical Products: An Exploration of Four Cephalosporins.” RAND Journal of Economics, vol. 28, no. 3, 1997, pp. 426-446.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, and Wallace Mullin. “Economics and Politics: The Case of Sugar Tariff Reform.” Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 38, no. 2, 1995, pp. 335-366.

Other Publications

• Ellison, Sara Fisher. Data Analysis for Social Scientists: A Foundational Crash Course. 2022. Amazon Publishing.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher. Problems for ‘Data Analysis for Social Scientists: A Foundational Crash Course’. 2022. Amazon Publishing.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher. “More Productive, Less Happy: How the Office Gender Split Affects Work.” The Conversation, 2014.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher. Entry for “Industry.” World Book Encyclopedia, 2013.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher. Entry for “The Pharmaceutical Industry.” The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2008.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher. “Alternative Academic Careers.” CSWEP Newsletter, 2006.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher. “The Future of E-Retail.” Technology Insider, 2000.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher. Review of “Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy,” by Schweitzer. Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 36, no. 3, 1998, pp. 1521-1522.

Working Papers

• Ellison, Sara Fisher. “Internet Matching Technologies and the Geographic Distribution of Chess Skills.” December 2022. Submitted.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher and Anil Haldun. “Regulatory Distortion: Evidence from Uber’s Entry Decisions in the US.” December 2022. Conditionally accepted.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher, Christopher Snyder, and Hongkai Zhang. “Costs of Managerial Attention and Activity as a Source of Sticky Prices: Structural Estimates from an Online Market.” 2022. Revise and resubmit.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher and Glenn Ellison. “Match Quality, Search, and the Internet Market for Used Books.” 2022. Revise and resubmit.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher and Christopher Snyder. “An Empirical Study of Pricing Strategies in an Online Market with High-Frequency Price Information.” July 2010.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher and Wallace Mullin. “Gradual Incorporation of Information into Stock Prices: An Empirical Study of Informed Trading.” July 2007.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher and Catherine Wolfram. “Pharmaceutical Prices and Politics.” January 2000.
• Ellison, Sara Fisher. “What Prices Can Tell Us About the Market for Antibiotics.” July 1998