National Economic and Statistics leadership

Peter R. Merrill

Dr. Peter R. Merrill directs the National Economics and Statistics (NES) group, which provides economic analyses of legislative and regulatory proposals as well as general economic consulting services. Dr. Merrill has experience in international taxation, financial services, electronic commerce, and energy and environmental tax policy.

Dr. Merrill is co-author of three books and has written numerous articles on tax policy. He frequently speaks on tax policy matters and has testified at congressional hearings, as well as before the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform and the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. He has also advised the governments of Poland, the former Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Russia on the reform and enactment of income and value-added taxes. Prior to joining PwC, Dr. Merrill was chief economist of the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Dr. Merrill received his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University in 1982 and his B.A. in Applied Mathematics, summa cum laude, from Harvard College in 1977. He is a member of the American Economics Association, the National Tax Association and the International Fiscal Association.
Andrew (Drew) B. Lyon

Dr. Andrew Lyon is a principal in the National Economics and Statistics (NES) group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Dr. Lyon has a leadership role in NES's Legislative & Regulatory Economics practice, which specializes in analyzing the revenue and economic impacts of legislative and regulatory proposals. Dr. Lyon also serves as a national technical resource in the areas of alternative minimum tax, depreciation, and capital gains taxation.

Prior to joining PwC, Dr. Lyon was on the faculty of the University of Maryland's economics department. He served for two years as deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis with the Department of Treasury. As deputy assistant secretary, he was responsible for providing economic advice and analysis on all aspects of Federal taxation and advising the Secretary of the Treasury on these issues, including the tax legislation adopted by Congress during the 2001-2003 period. He received the Internal Revenue Service Commissioner's Award and the Treasury Department's Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Lyon has also served on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisors and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Dr. Lyon is the author of a book on the alternative minimum tax, and has written numerous articles covering a wide range of tax issues, including dynamic revenue analysis, consumption taxation, distributional analysis of tax reform, international taxation, the effects of tax policy on the stock market, and social security financing.Dr. Lyon received an A.B., with distinction and Phi Beta Kappa, from Stanford University, and earned his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University. He was a co-winner of the National Tax Association dissertation award. He has been a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Jessica Pollner

Dr. Jessica Pollner is a principal in the National Economics and Statistics (NES) group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Dr. Pollner, a professional statistician with over 25 years of experience, specializes in the analysis of complex datasets using credible and defensible statistical techniques. Dr. Pollner provides this statistical and business analytic support to various industry sectors that include but are not limited to: financial services, healthcare, consumer and industrial products, telecommunications; and retail. Dr. Pollner has provided expert testimony in both state and federal courts, as well as in mediation and arbitration proceedings.Prior to joining PwC, Dr. Pollner worked as a senior statistician in a number of companies, and provided general management consulting support in areas including employment economics and human resources analytics, transportation statistics, toxic torts and class action litigations, and environmental policy.

Dr. Pollner has written numerous articles on the use of statistical techniques for business and accounting applications. Methodologies discussed in these articles include sampling, modeling, and probability theory. Dr. Pollner received a B.A. in Mathematics, Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the State University of New York at Buffalo; an M.A. in Mathematics from Boston University, and earned her Ph.D. in Statistical Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a member of the American Statistical Association, the Biometrics Society, and the International Trademark Association.
L. Jack Rodgers

Dr. Jack Rodgers is a managing director in the Health Policy Economics Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Dr. Rodgers has more than twenty-five years of experience with federal health policy and legislation related to health services and prescription drugs. He has written extensively about issues such as health insurance reform, Medicare provider reimbursement, and prescription drug coverage.While at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dr. Rodgers has assisted major healthcare organizations in evaluating the impact of federal legislation — from the Clinton health proposals in 1993-1994 to the BBA of 1997 to the MMA of 2003. During the past five years, he has written extensively on the impact of the Medicare prescription drug benefit on Medicare beneficiaries, health plans, employers, and pharmaceutical companies.

Before joining PwC, Dr. Rodgers was principal analyst for health at the Congressional Budget Office for nine years where he worked on the 1987 Medicare prescription drug legislation and also analyzed the first Bush Administration’s proposals to expand health insurance coverage. He authored the CBO report, Selected Options for Expanding Health Insurance Coverage. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota and has taught economics and health policy courses at the University of Minnesota, Saint Olaf College, and George Washington University.
Linden (Lin) C. Smith

Mr. Lin Smith is a managing director in the National Economics and Statistics (NES) group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Mr. Smith works with clients to estimate the budgetary impact of proposed legislation, to present revenue and outlay estimates to congressional and administration staff and officials, to assist clients with the design of legislative proposals that recognize budgetary consequences, and to aid in the development of comprehensive legislative strategies. He is responsible for economic studies that describe the economic and distributional impacts and consequences of legislative proposals. Clients use these studies to educate policymakers on the economic effects of proposed legislation.

Prior to joining PwC, Mr. Smith was a managing director of KPMG Consulting, Inc., where he headed the legislative & regulatory economics group and was previously a partner in KPMG LLP. From 1987 through 2001, he directed the group’s practice in providing budget score-keeping, economic analysis, tax policy analysis, and legislative proposal design on policy issues for commercial and government clients. He was responsible for the development of microsimulation tax and outlay models, and performed numerous business tax policy, distributional, and economic impact studies.From 1976 through 1987, Mr. Smith was an economist with the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation where he had primary responsibility for official estimates of the federal revenue consequences of a large proportion of the business tax policy changes considered by the Congress.Mr. Smith performed graduate studies in economics at George Washington University and has a B.A. in Economics from Kalamazoo College.