It is with great sadness that NERA says goodbye to Jules Joskow. Jules co-founded NERA more than 50 years ago, along with Irwin Stelzer and the late Fred Kahn, and he remained a part of the NERA family for the rest of his life.
When Jules helped to found National Economic Research Associates in 1961, it was the first firm of its kind. Jules and his colleagues had the vision to create the first true economic consulting firm, and the drive and astonishing intellectual weight to make it grow and prosper.
In his own practice, Jules specialized in directing studies involving the application of statistics to problems in market structure and market share analysis, studies of the costs of environmental controls for the nuclear industry, and cost studies related to ratemaking in the electric utility industry. He also conducted important work on the design and evaluation of statistical surveys, particularly with reference to their use in litigation, an area of focus which is now a practice area for NERA. For many years, he consulted to the telecommunications industry on such matters as market determinations and costing methods, appropriate methodologies for pricing competitive and non-competitive services, and the measurement of damages in an antitrust context.
As an expert economic and statistical witness, Jules testified before regulatory commissions and the courts and spoke frequently on pricing and regulatory problems before various forums. He served as an Adjunct Member of the Special Committee on Empirical Data in Legal Decision Making of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and as an editorial adviser on statistics textbooks to several publishing companies. His work was published in leading economic journals including the Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Social Service Review, and Public Utilities Fortnightly.
Jules's role within the firm was far-reaching. He served as Vice President when NERA was founded, when we had 17 employees in New York and Washington, DC. From 1985 to 1991, he served as NERA's President and, later, as Chairman of the Board. By the time he retired 20 years ago, after a distinguished consulting career, the firm had hundreds of employees and offices around the world.
Jules was, of course, pleased with NERA's success and how the firm had changed and grown over the years. When he looked back on what he created on the occasion of NERA's 50th anniversary last year, he also stressed what hasn’t changed: the firm's "dedication to integrity, quality, and service." He said, "For that I am very proud."
He was also proud that his son, Andy, carries on his legacy at NERA as a Senior Vice President.
In the first history of NERA, composed by Jules in 1990, he wrote about the process of choosing the firm’s name: "We decided on National Economic Research Associates because… we thought it would be best that the firm’s name not be tied to that of an individual." NERA's name, its growth, and its future, however, will always be linked with Jules.
We at NERA will always appreciate Jules's contributions—visionary, intellectual, and cultural—without which none of us would be working here today.
Contribututions
Donations can be made in the memory of Jules and Charlotte Joskow to:
UJA-Federation of New York
130 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022
