Current & Past Research Projects

I am currently working on a NIH grant with Drs. Randall Akee and Emilia Simeonova on health access, mobility, and equality of American Indian and rural communities in California during the onset of the pandemic.  I work with a restricted use dataset from the California Health Interview Survey and proprietary data using GIS mobility tracking from Transflow.  These communities are often underrepresented or overlooked when reporting statistics or impacts of policy.  We are currently developing a few papers on the drivers of long-COVID among these communities as well as comparing actionable information from mobility data that is relatively immediate compared to survey data that takes time to collect and process.

I am also continuing researching impacts of recreational marijuana laws on the young and elderly, use along with alcohol, and impacts of grow farms on real estate values.  I am also exploring the impacts of certain policy changes on the reclassification of drug offenses on health, education, work, and crime outcomes with Dr. Zainab Hans.

My PhD dissertation focuses on the urgent care market.  Three main topics that I explore are:

Chapter 01 deals with the changing landscape for providers offering quick and convenient care and patients wanting an 'on-demand' style of care.  The history and growth of the urgent care and convenient care markets over the last 20 years is examined in how it is replacing the 'medical home' and main role performed by physicians.

Chapter 02 (Job Market Paper) deals with the determinants that influence the location of urgent care facilities using data from National Urgent Care Realty.  Spatial analysis is performed at the census tract and county levels, incorporating a few different two-part statistical models to control for both the presence and abundance of urgent care given proximity to competitive and complementary providers.

Chapter 03 deals with spatial competition of urgent cares among hospitals, physicians, and specialists using SafeGraph Patterns foot-traffic data.  This study also examines the impact of the pandemic's onset on various provider types.  Market concentration and medical access is examined for various provider types and competitive presence mixes.

Publications

Thomas Wilk, Monica Deza, Timothy Hodge, and Shooshan Danagoulian "Couch-Locked with the Munchies: Effects of Recreational Marijuana Laws on Exercise and Nutrition." (April 2025). (NBER Working Paper #33176) Under Review

Shooshan Danagoulian and Thomas Wilk "Locking Out Prevention:  Dental Care in the Midst of a Pandemic" (2022). 31:9 1973-1992 Health Economics.  Ungated copy here.

Thomas Wilk “Bitcoin: The good, the bad, and the ugly.” Oakland County Legal News. June 15, 2016, 3-4.

Thomas Wilk "High School Graduation Rates in the Metro-Detroit Area: What Really Affects Public Secondary Education."  Undergraduate Economic Review v5.n1, 2009.  Ungated copy here.

Working Papers

Randall Akee, Emilia Simeonova, and Thomas Wilk "Differences in COVID-19 Related Health Outcomes among American Indian / Alaska Native Populations in California." July 2025.

Thomas Wilk “Urgent Care Location Analysis.” Dissertation chapter 2 & JMP, Wayne State University, May 2025.

Sara Sayeda, Thomas Wilk, and Shooshan Danagoulian "Air Pollution and Neonatal Health in Michigan: A Public Health Crises." October 2024.

Thomas Wilk “Competitive Analysis Amongst the Onset of a Pandemic.” Dissertation chapter 3, Wayne State University, August 2024.

Thomas Wilk "History and Recent Trends of Urgent Care." Dissertation chapter 1, Wayne State University, August 2024.

Work In Progress

Randall Akee, Emilia Simeonova, and Thomas Wilk "Medical Mobility on and near Tribal Reservations during the Onset of the Pandemic." July 2025.

Joshua Hess and Thomas Wilk "Recreational Cannabis Usage among Generations." July 2025.

Zainab Hans and Thomas Wilk "Economic Impacts of Drug Reclassification Policies." May 2025.

Timothy Hodge and Thomas Wilk "Transaction Cost as a Determinant in the Relationship between Alcohol and Cannabis." June 2025.

Stacey Brockman, Thomas Wilk, and Molly Ledermann "Turning the Page: Assessing the Impacts of Open Educational Resources (OER) on Community College Student Outcomes." March 2025.

Thomas Wilk "Medical Concordance Bias: Differences in Genders of Provider and Patient", November 2023.

Walter Ryley and Thomas Wilk "Hospital Catchment Modeling based on Price Elasticity and Competiive Presence."  September 2023.

Walter Ryley and Thomas Wilk "Risk Assessment of Recreational Marijuana Laws and Long Haul Trucking" September 2023.

Thomas Wilk “Determining Michigan County Opioid Prescription Rates.” December 2019.

Presentations

Poster: "Differences in Health Related Outcomes Among American Indian / Alaskan Native Populations in California." American Society for Health Economists, Annual Conference, June 2025, Nashville, TN.

Oral: "Urgent Care Location Analysis." Wayne State University Economics Seminar, November 2024, Detroit, MI.

Oral: "Marijuana Munchies or Couch Lock: Effects of Recreational Marijuana Laws on Exercise and Nutrition."

        American Society of Health Economists, June 2025, Nashville, TN.

Bowling Green State University, Economics Colloquia, March 20225, Bowling Green, OH.

Western Michigan University, Friday Seminar Series, January 2025, Kalmazoo, MI.

American Economic Association, ASSA Annual Meeting, January 2025, San Francisco, CA.

        American Society of Health Economists, June 2024, San Diego, CA.

Federal Drug Administration, Office of Economics and Analysis Brown Bag, April 2024, Silver Spring, MD.

Midwest Economic Association, March 2024, Chicago, IL.

Oral: “Competitive Analysis Amongst Healthcare Providers: Catchment Area Modeling by Firm and Patient Location.”

Southern Economic Association, November 2023, New Orleans, LA.

Western Economic Association International, July 2023, San Diego, CA.

Graduate Research Symposium, March 2023, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.

Oral: "Locking Out Prevention: Dental Care in the Midst of a Pandemic", H2D2, March 2021, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.

Oral: “Bitcoin: The good, the bad, and the ugly.”, Birmingham-Bloomfield Coin Club, March 2018, Birmingham, MI.

Media & News

"Marijuana Leads to Munchies and 'Couchlock'" Chicago Booth Review, by Áine Doris with Thomas Wilk, Monica Deza, Timothy Hodge, and Shooshan Danagoulian, January  13, 2025.

"Paying the Price: Health Care Inflation" Detroit Channel 7 News WXYZ, Keenan Smith Morning News with Thomas Wilk and Michael Greiner, February 17, 2022.

Copyright Thomas A. Wilk 2025