Mahoney earned a Bachelor of Science from Brown University in applied mathematics-economics in 2005, where he received the Samuel C. Lamport Prize for the best undergraduate thesis in economics. He completed a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in economics at Stanford University in 2011, where he was a George P. Shultz Scholar and Ric Weiland Fellow.[1]
In college, Mahoney played for the Brown Men's Ultimate team, winning a National Championship in 2005.[5] He coached the Stanford Men's Ultimate team to a quarter-final appearance in the 2011 National Championships.[6]
Mahoney is an applied microeconomist whose research focuses on topics in health economics and consumer finance. His research on credit card markets has shown the consumer benefits of regulating hidden fees[9] and the limited pass-through of interest rate cuts to low credit score borrowers.[10] In research on credit card repayments, he found that consumers followed a balance-matching heuristic, rather than allocating their payments to the card with highest interest rate.[11]
Mahoney's research on medical debt has received widespread media attention,[12][13] and was featured in a segment on the CBS Evening News.[14] His work on hospitals suing patients over unpaid medical bills has also been broadly covered.[15][16] A 2005 paper co-authored by Elizabeth Warren entitled "Illness And Injury As Contributors To Bankruptcy" helped to spark Mahoney's interest in the economics of medical bankruptcy.[17]
In 2016, Mahoney was named a Sloan Research Fellow, given to early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.[18] In 2021, Mahoney received the ASHEcon Medal for researchers aged 40 and under who have made significant contributions to the field of health economics.[19]
