The ZEW Mannheim awards Kelsey Moran for her groundbreaking research highlighting the costs of data fragmentation in healthcare.

The ZEW Mannheim has announced that Kelsey Moran, PhD, from the University of Miami, is the recipient of the 2026 Heinz König Young Scholar Award. This prestigious award, given for the 26th time, recognizes outstanding empirical research and comprises a prize of €5,000.

Moran was honored for her paper titled "Costs of Technological Frictions: Evidence from EHR (Non-)Interoperability," co-authored with Rebekah Dix from Stanford University and Thi Mai Anh Nguyen from New York University. The paper investigates a pressing market failure in the digital economy: the lack of data portability within electronic health record systems across U.S. hospitals. The research indicates that technological barriers not only inflate financial costs but also jeopardize patient well-being and the quality of public services.

Professor Irene Bertschek, who heads ZEW's Digital Economy Research Unit, commended Moran's work for its thorough analysis and significance regarding European digital market regulations such as the Digital Markets Act, which aims to enhance interoperability and data sharing among large platforms.

The award presentation took place in the presence of Dr. Joanna Kowalska, Chief Financial Officer of Hornbach Baumarkt AG, this year's sponsor. She highlighted the societal impact of the research and the importance of supporting promising researchers in their endeavors.

The Heinz König Young Scholar Award, named after ZEW's founding director, aims to promote young academics, continuing a tradition that underlines the institute’s commitment to enhancing empirical economic research.

Read more about the Heinz König Award on the ZEW website.

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