Curriculum Vitae

David Neumark is Distinguished Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy at the University of California, Irvine. He has previously held positions at the Federal Reserve Board, the University of Pennsylvania, Michigan State University, and the Public Policy Institute of California, and he is currently a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has been a co-editor of the Journal of Urban Economics, an editor of the IZA Journal of Labor Policy, and has served on the editorial board of numerous journals. His research contributions have been recognized by being appointed a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served as an expert witness in numerous cases related to sex, age, and race discrimination in labor markets.

Professor Neumark has made research contributions in numerous areas of labor economics that intersect with important public policy issues. Neumark’s research on labor market discrimination has opened up new methods of measuring discrimination. His early work on wage equation decompositions led to efforts to better tie these measurement methods to underlying models of discrimination. Later work developed methods of using matched employer-employee data to test for discrimination. His recent methodological contribution on audit and correspondence studies is being rapidly adopted in new and ongoing studies.

Neumark was one of the original contributors to the “new minimum wage research,” helping to pioneer the use of state-level minimum wage variation to estimate minimum wage effects. His subsequent work moved beyond the debate over employment effects, to research on the effects of minimum wages on the income distribution, long-run effects of minimum wages on human capital and earnings, and complementarities between minimum wages and the EITC. In related work, he was the first to assemble data and explore methods to study the effects of city living wage laws, as well as contributing to understanding the political economy of these laws. His new work is focused on re-evaluating some core findings in the recent minimum wage literature, including using cross-border designs to estimate effects of minimum wages on employment, and evidence that monopsony weakens the job loss effects of minimum wages. Neumark has authored many studies on age discrimination and the economics of aging. Recently, he has studied how stronger age discrimination laws complement policy reforms intended to increase labor supply of older workers, conducted a large-scale field experiment testing for age discrimination, and developed methods to test for age stereotypes in job ads and explore how these influence job search of older workers.

applEcon Contact
Brian Rosewarne

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Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Michael F. Pesko is the J. Rhoads Foster Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri. He has previously submitted expert economic testimony in cases involving competition and regulation, including In re: JUUL Labs, Inc. Antitrust Litigation and Marshall v. Altria Group Inc., et al.

Dr. Pesko’s research examines the causal effects of public policies on health behaviors, market outcomes, and economic decision-making. His work applies quasi-experimental methods to large-scale administrative, retail, and survey datasets to evaluate how policies affecting prices, access, and information shape individual and market responses, including the estimation of counterfactual outcomes. He has published over 90 peer-reviewed papers including in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and has been cited over 3,500 times.

Dr. Pesko serves as director of the Social Impact Lab—a multidisciplinary research group spanning economics, law and policy, and public health. He has contributed to scientific and policy discussions through service on advisory bodies in the United States and Canada.

applEcon Contact
Brian Rosewarne

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734.214.2228

Contact Yael

Yael Atzmon joined applEcon as a Staff Analyst in September 2025 after graduating from the University of Michigan. Yael graduated with a degree in public policy and minors in economics and English. Her academic interests included studying economic policy related to inequality and the intersection between law and economics. Yael also served as the president of the Michigan Journal of Economics after writing articles on a variety of economic topics. 

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Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Darrell L. Williams is an expert in antitrust economics with more than two decades of experience advising clients and regulatory agencies on complex competition matters across a range of industries—including technology, healthcare, petroleum, and sports. He has served as an economic expert in high-profile litigation involving global price-fixing, exclusive dealings, market dominance, and joint ventures. His recent work includes expert testimony in In re College Athlete NIL Litigation, a landmark case at the intersection of antitrust and sports economics.

Dr. Williams began his career in the public sector, serving as a staff economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he provided economic analysis on issues of industrial organization and regulatory policy. He later served as a financial economist at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he worked on matters related to securities fraud, corporate control, and market regulation.

In addition to his consulting work, Dr. Williams is an award-winning teacher. He is a former faculty member in the Department of Economics at UCLA, where he taught courses in antitrust, securities markets, and economic regulation. He has also lectured at the Economics Institute for Federal Judges and served as Vice Chair of the Economics Committee in the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association.

applEcon Contact
Brian Rosewarne

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M.A. Economics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
B.A. Economics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Curriculum Vitae

Contact Nels

With more than 35 years of experience as an economic consultant and testifying expert, Nels Pearsall provides clients with deep expertise in liability analysis, damages quantification, and asset valuation across a wide range of industries and legal contexts.

Mr. Pearsall has extensive experience in antitrust matters, including monopolization, price discrimination, tying, predatory pricing, price fixing, collusion, and vertical and horizontal restraints. He has also advised on cases involving industry standard-setting, patent pooling, and licensing practices alleged to be anticompetitive. He is co-author of the antitrust chapter in Litigation Services Handbook: The Role of the Financial Expert (5th Ed., John Wiley & Sons).

His intellectual property work spans the valuation of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, as well as the analysis of economic damages in disputes involving reasonable royalties, lost profits, and price erosion. He has also assisted clients with transfer pricing and IP strategy related to intangible asset transactions.

In broader commercial disputes, Mr. Pearsall has assessed damages in matters involving breach of contract, business interruption, real estate investment losses, commercial fraud, changes in asset or equity value, and fiduciary claims. His work includes detailed analyses of markets, financial instruments, industry transactions, and corporate strategies. He has developed economic and financial models to evaluate firm performance, forecast sales, and measure competitive impact.

Mr. Pearsall’s consulting background also includes engagements involving market intelligence, pricing models, predictive analytics, survey design, and business valuation. He brings a practical, data-driven approach to solving complex problems, with a focus on providing clear, defensible, and actionable insights to clients, counsel, and courts. In addition to his client work, Mr. Pearsall has authored numerous articles and is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer for business and legal organizations, as well as academic institutions. His presentations often focus on economic damages, market analysis, and the intersection of business strategy and legal disputes.

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Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Evan Starr is an Associate Professor of Management & Organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. His research examines issues related to employment contracts, employee mobility, entrepreneurship, innovation, and human capital. He is particularly interested in how the fine print in employment contracts (e.g., noncompete and nondisclosure agreements) and the policies that regulate them influence workers, firms, and markets. Dr. Starr has authored more than a dozen articles in leading journals in economics and management and testified in front of the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, and many state governments. His research has been covered in major news outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, NPR, Financial Times, and The Washington Post.  Dr. Starr’s prior expert consulting work includes testimony and reports related to mobility restrictions, damages, class certification, and statistical analysis. Formerly a professor at the University of Illinois, Dr. Starr received his PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan.

applEcon Contact
Josh Palmer

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Curriculum Vitae

Pierre Thomas Léger is an economist with over 20 years of experience in applied research focusing on healthcare economics, industrial organization, labor economics, and applied econometrics. Professor Léger’s research focuses on healthcare markets with special emphasis on the impact of financial incentives on provider treatment decisions, costs, and patient outcomes. He is currently working on several projects including studies on the role of local market conditions, financial incentives, and provider culture in explaining geographic variations in healthcare utilization and spending in both Medicare and commercial insurance markets. Professor Léger has given numerous invited seminars, grand rounds, and lectures at leading academic institutions in Canada, the US, Europe, and South America. His work has been published in leading academic outlets including Management Science, the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, the Journal of Health Economics, the Journal of Human Resources, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Encyclopedia of Health Economics. 

Professor Léger is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Administration at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he has served as the MS-CTS and PhD program director, and the Acting division director. Professor Léger currently teaches courses in healthcare finance to EMHA students, and research methods to PhD, MD and PharmD students, as well as medical school fellows and faculty members. Over the years he has taught courses in econometrics, industrial organization, health economics, managerial economics, and healthcare finance. Prior to joining UIC, Professor Léger was an Associate Professor at HEC Montreal -the University of Montreal’s affiliated business school. He has held visiting positions at the Paris School of Economics, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of los Andes, Santiago Chile.

Professor Léger has consulted on patent and antitrust cases in both Canada and the US. Professor Léger is fluent in French and English. He holds an MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Western Ontario, and a B.Soc.Sc. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Ottawa.

applEcon Contact
Brian Rosewarne

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Curriculum Vitae

734.213.1930

Contact David

Dr. David Keiser is a Professor in the Department of Resource Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from Yale University, an M.S. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Georgia, and a B.A. in Mathematics and Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. He currently serves as a chartered member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board.

Dr. Keiser is an environmental economist with a focus on the economics of water resources. His work covers a wide-range of topics, including non-market valuation, damage estimation, and policy evaluation. His research has been published in leading economic and science journals, including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Public Economics, and the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, among others. His work has been cited in Congressional testimony, incorporated in graduate training at leading universities, appeared in major news outlets, and has received over 1,000 citations. He is a Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on approximately $7.9 million in federal and state grants. Dr. Keiser also co-leads a national annual workshop on the Social Costs of Water Pollution.  

Dr. Keiser serves as a Features co-editor of the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, a flagship journal for environmental economists and one of the top overall economics journals by impact factor. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of Land Economics and regularly serves as a peer reviewer at top science and economic journals. In his role on the U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board, he has reviewed and commented on a wide-range of topics from greenhouse gas regulations to drinking water rules.  Dr. Keiser has engaged as an expert witness and consultant on a number of issues related to drinking and surface water pollution. He has served as an expert witness on the impacts of drinking water contamination in Flint, MI. He has also advised economists at the Central Bank of Brazil on economic damage estimates from a large mining disaster, worked with legal scholars to analyze the 2020 Steam Electric Reconsideration Rule, and co-chaired an independent review of the Navigation Waters Protection Rule for an external environmental economics advisory committee.

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Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Brian C. Becker has served as an economic expert witness and consultant for more than thirty years on behalf of corporations, law firms, governments, and organizations. With a focus on quantitative valuations, Dr. Becker has provided written and oral testimony in disputes over transfer pricing, intellectual property, financial transactions, international trade, business valuations, and corporate damages. These valuations have led Dr. Becker to testify under direct, cross examination, and “hot tub” formats in approximately 60 depositions and 60 trials before judges, juries, panels, and mediators. Dr. Becker’s trial testimony includes twelve transfer pricing trials in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Africa. Dr. Becker has also testified in class action, False Claims Act, ERISA, intellectual property, international trade, tax shelter, and business valuation matters. Dr. Becker earned a Ph.D. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Becker has served as a Professor for MBA and undergraduate students in Finance, Derivative Securities, Statistics, and Operations Management courses. In addition to speaking at professional conferences, Dr. Becker has published approximately 30 articles (and book chapters) on topics ranging from damages awards and discount rates to cost sharing buy-ins and licensee profitability.

applEcon Contact
Brian Rosewarne

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Curriculum Vitae

734.213.1930

Contact Gabriel

Dr. Gabriel Lade is an Associate Professor of Economics at Macalester College and the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University. Previously, Dr. Lade was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Iowa State University. Dr. Lade received a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis, an M.A. in Economics from Rutgers University, and a B.A. in Economics and International Affairs from the George Washington University. Dr. Lade has taught antitrust issues at both the undergraduate and doctoral levels.

Dr. Lade specializes in environmental and natural resource economics. His areas of expertise include biofuels regulation, valuation of water and air quality, and utility conservation. His research has explored the economics and consumer impacts of renewable fuels regulations, the impacts of air pollution on U.S. National Park visitation, and the impact of utility water efficiency programs on water and energy conservation. Dr. Lade has consulting experience in the Flint Water cases: Carthan et al. v. Snyder and In re FTCA Flint Water Cases.

Dr. Lade has published articles on issues related to market competition in the retail fuels sector. Dr. Lade has published in top economics and general interest journals, including the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Science Advances, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and Energy Policy. Dr. Lade also serves on the editorial council for the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He has advised several federal and state agencies and think tanks, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board, the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office, and the Environmental Defense Fund, and he has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives.

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