Elissa Philip Gentry holds a J.D. and a Ph.D. in Law and Economics from Vanderbilt University. She previously served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Toulouse, France, and a judicial clerk for the Honorable Jane Roth of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, in Philadelphia.
An empiricist by training, Professor Gentry’s research lies at the intersection of health law, risk and uncertainty, pharmaceutical regulation, and economics. Her work focusing on risk regulation in drugs and medical devices has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty and Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, as well as law reviews like Hastings Law Review and Arizona State Law Journal. Her current projects include empirical evidence on the effect of judicial opinions on pharmaceutical strategy in R&D. Professor Gentry’s other line of research examines heterogeneity in the value of a statistical life (VSL) and a statistical injury (VSI), important metrics in assessing health benefits in regulation. Her work on this topic has been published in the Journal of Health Economics and the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. While vast majority of her work is empirical, Professor Gentry has non-empirical work examining legal doctrines surrounding medical malpractice claims in Arizona State Law Journal and Indiana Law Review.
Professor Gentry’s work has been presented at health-related sessions spanning both the law and economics fields, including the American Society of Health Economists conference, Southern Economic Association conference, NBER Productivity Seminar, Empirical Health Law Conference, Society for Risk Analysis, and the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis. She has provided testimony to the Florida Civil Justice Subcommittee regarding empirical evidence on consumer responses to attorney advertising. She also participates in judicial education, speaking about the regulation of emerging risks at George Mason’s Symposium on Scientific Methodology and the Admissibility of Expert Testimony.
Ph.D. in Law and Economics, Vanderbilt University
J.D., Vanderbilt University
B.S. in Human and Organizational Development & Economics, Vanderbilt University
Risk and Regulation
Health Law
Law and Economics
Torts
“Disrupting the Risk Ratchet.” Oregon Law Review (forthcoming).
“Embryonic Personhood’s Threat to Conception”, with W. Kip Viscusi, Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy (forthcoming).
“Market versus Policy Responses to Novel Occupational Risks,” with Robert J. Cramer and W. Kip Viscusi, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 21(4): 716-756 (2024).
“Disregarding Uncertainty, Marginalizing Patients,” Indiana Law Review 57(2): 357-401 (2023).
“When Patients are Assailants: Attitudes toward Healthcare Occupational Risks,” with W. Kip Viscusi, 14 Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis 356-385 (2023).
“The Misapplication of the Major Questions Doctrine to Emerging Risks,” with W. Kip Viscusi, 63 Houston Law Review 469-516 (2024).
“Damned Causation,” Arizona State Law Journal 54(2):419-469 (2022).
- Reviewed in JOTWELL (March 2024)
- Connecticut Lawyer’s FORUM magazine solicited a short article summarizing and further discussing this piece.
“A Socially Beneficial False Claims Act?,” Tennessee Law Review 88(3): 725-770 (2021).
“Contaminated Relationships in the Opioid Crisis,” with Benjamin McMichael, Hastings Law Journal 72(3), 827-870 (2021).
“Responses to Liability Immunization: Evidence from Medical Devices,” with Benjamin McMichael, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 17(4), 789-819 (2020).
“Asymmetric Effects of Changes in Workers’ Compensation Laws,” with W. Kip Viscusi. American Law and Economics Review 21(2), 307-345, (2019).
“Empirical Evidence of Risk Penalties for NTI Drugs,” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 58(2), 219-224 (2019).
“The Fatality and Morbidity Components of the Value of Statistical Life,” with W. Kip Viscusi, Journal of Health Economics, 46, March 2016, 90–99.
“The Value of a Statistical Life for Transportation Regulations: A Test of the Benefits Transfer Methodology,” with W. Kip Viscusi, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 51(1), 53–77 (2015).