Theodore Marmor's scholarship primarily concerns welfare state politics and policy in North America and Western Europe. He particularly emphasizes the major spending programs, which is reflected in the second edition of The Politics of Medicare and the book written with colleagues Mashaw and Harvey in the early l990s, America's Misunderstood Welfare State (Basic Books, l992). The author or co-author of eleven books, Marmor has published over a hundred articles in a wide range of scholarly journals, as well as being a frequent op-ed contributor to U.S. and Canadian newspapers.

Professor Marmor began his public career as a special assistant to Wilbur Cohen (Secretary of HEW) in the mid-1960s. He was associate dean of Minnesota's School of Public Affairs, a faculty member at the University of Chicago, the head of Yale's Center for Health Services, a member of President Carter's Commission on the National Agenda for the 1980s, and a senior social policy advisor to Walter Mondale in the Presidential campaign of 1984. He has testified before Congress about medical care reform, social security, and welfare issues, as well as being a consultant to government and non-profit agencies. Marmor lectures frequently on health policy, management issues, and law to both management and law students. He has been an expert witness in cases ranging from the constitutionality of the Canada Health Act to asbestos disputes and drug pricing fraud.