Roger N. Bate, PhD is an economist and global health policy researcher. He is the President of the Center for Global Health Accountability and a Fellow at the International Center for Law & Economics.

Dr. Bate’s work spans three decades at the intersection of economics, public health, and regulation. In recent years, his research has focused on the comparative risks of combustible tobacco versus non-combustible nicotine products, the public-health consequences of restrictive nicotine regulation, and the political economy of global tobacco control. He has authored and co-authored multiple policy papers and quantitative models estimating the potential lives saved through wider access to lower-risk nicotine products such as vaping devices and oral nicotine pouches, drawing on evidence from the United Kingdom, Sweden, and other jurisdictions with risk-proportionate regulatory frameworks.

Dr. Bate is a leading critic of prohibitionist approaches embedded in the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), arguing that these policies have unintentionally protected cigarette markets, suppressed innovation, and driven consumers toward illicit and higher-risk products. His recent writing examines how donor influence, institutional incentives, and precautionary regulation have constrained harm-reduction strategies in both high-income and low- and middle-income countries. He is currently involved in international collaborations assessing global health governance reforms and the role of evidence-based risk management in post-pandemic health policy.

Previously, Dr. Bate conducted extensive field research on falsified and substandard medicines across Africa, India, and Latin America, publishing more than two dozen peer-reviewed papers on drug quality, regulation, and corruption. He is the author of Phake: The Deadly World of Falsified and Substandard Medicines (AEI Press) and has written or edited fourteen books and more than a thousand articles and essays.

His work has appeared in academic journals including The Lancet, BMJ, PLOS Medicine, Journal of Health Economics, and American Journal of Health Economics, as well as major newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has advised governments and international organizations on health policy, regulation, and risk communication.