Haiming (Richard) Li

Ph.D. Candidate in Economics · Lehigh University

Haiming Li is a health economist and a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Lehigh University, where he expects to complete his degree in May 2027. His dissertation asks two questions. The first is where substance-use policy actually lands: when a state legalizes or restricts a substance, the effects rarely stop at the border that defines the law. The second is how access to care — dental coverage, psychiatric capacity — shows up later in health outcomes and in spending elsewhere in the system.

His job market paper studies the mental health consequences of recreational cannabis legalization in New Jersey for residents of neighboring Pennsylvania. Related work examines regulatory spillovers across substances, the closure of psychiatric hospitals under Pennsylvania's CHIPP program, and the causal pathway from oral health to heart disease.

He is on the job market in the 2026–27 academic year.

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