NERA Economic Consulting (www.nera.com) is a global firm of experts dedicated to applying economic, finance, and quantitative principles to complex business and legal challenges. For over half a century, NERA's economists have been creating strategies, studies, reports, expert testimony, and policy recommendations for government authorities and the world’s leading law firms and corporations. They bring academic rigor, objectivity, and real world industry experience to bear on issues arising from competition, regulation, public policy, strategy, finance, and litigation.
NERA’s clients value their ability to apply and communicate state-of-the-art approaches clearly and convincingly, their commitment to deliver unbiased findings, and their reputation for quality and independence. Their clients rely on the integrity and skills of their unparalleled team of economists and other experts backed by the resources and reliability of one of the world’s largest economic consultancies. With its main office in New York City, NERA serves clients from more than 25 offices across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
History
On 10 April 1961, Dr. Jules Joskow and Dr. Irwin Stelzer found a new kind of company. The two noted economists, advised by Dr. Alfred E. Kahn (one of the country's foremost economists and future "father of airline deregulation"), create National Economic Research Associates, the first consulting firm dedicated to methodically applying rigorous microeconomic thought to litigation and regulatory matters.
The firm's 17 members work from offices in New York City and Washington, DC on projects involving natural gas field price matters, particularly oil wellhead price controls. Clients include many major combination gas and electric utilities with regulatory problems that extend beyond gas costs.
NERA takes on projects in the US utilities industry involving testimony before state regulatory commissions and antitrust work in a range of industries. The FCC's investigation into AT&T's pricing policies lead AT&T to retain NERA to assist with developing the economic theory and the cost and market studies that would be required in hearings to be held on the matter. NERA continues to work with AT&T on its issues with the FCC, state commissions, and the DOJ for more than 20 years.
Within only a few years of the firm's founding, NERA branches into areas far beyond its initial natural gas litigation work. NERA experts takes on antitrust work related to the television industry, and pioneers the application of discounted cash flow analysis in determining the appropriate rate of return in utility regulation.
In the firm's first securities-related matter, NERA is retained by the New York Stock Exchange to complete economic studies relating to the SEC's investigation into fixed commission rates for securities transactions.
