Bates White is a mid-sized consultancy specializing in advanced economic, financial and econometric analysis. The company's professional staff-among them economists, econometricians, financial analysts, and IT specialists-help law firms, corporations, and government entities address complex matters that require sophisticated problem solving and deep empirical analysis.

Co-founders Charles Bates and Halbert White set the bar as high for excellence as they did for diversity. They created a culture where bright minds from diverse backgrounds work together to build strong, collaborative relationships with clients, within teams, and in the community." The firm is uniquely focused on the cultivation of diversity within its ranks. It regularly tests, implements, and evaluates initiatives aimed at the heterogeneous widening of the staff and corporate culture, and ensures that all employees, regardless of their differences, have opportunities to learn, develop and contribute to the firm's success. Employees come from an array of ethnicities and backgrounds, having been recruited from many different institutions and an alphabet soup of academic fields, including biology, business administration, chemistry, economics, engineering, finance, mathematics, physics, political science, and statistics.

November 2020

Snowball sampling and sample selection in a social network

In the chapter “Snowball Sampling and Sample Selection in a Social Network,” Manager and Lead Data Scientist Julian Chan studies a snowball sampling method for social networks with endogenous peer selection. He proposes a new estimation method that uses the samples in different iterations to correct selection. Dr. Chan uses data from Facebook postings about the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong to illustrate his method. The chapter appears in The Econometrics of Networks, volume 42 in the Advances in Econometrics series published by Emerald Publishing.

September 2020

Employees find fun and creative ways to connect remotely and raise money for the community

Whether it’s competing in online competitions or showcasing employee talents, Bates White’s Community Connection, a grass-roots program that enables employees to carry out activities for organizations they support, is giving back in many creative ways. Since the pandemic began, firm employees have shown their passion and generosity by implementing numerous fun ways to stay connected while also helping the community. Virtual events included Spirit Wars, a week-long event involving teams in competitions of Pajama Day, Twin Day, Team Color Day, and a Codenames game, which raised funds for DC Public Education Fund’s COVID-19 relief program; an employee talent showcase to support the fight for racial justice, raising funds for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; and a quarantine raffle, with employees purchasing raffle tickets to win a one of four kits that made quarantining easier while raising funds for DC Central Kitchen.

July 2020

Eldorado-Caesars merger

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement retained Bates White to analyze potential undue economic concentration among Atlantic City casinos that could result from Eldorado's acquisition of Caesars Entertainment Corporation; the acquisition would result in fewer independent casino operators in Atlantic City. The Bates White expert submitted an expert report and testified before the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. His analysis and testimony demonstrated that certain divestitures, investments, and the lifting of deed restrictions would mitigate the harm to competition resulting from the acquisition. The Commission’s decision to approve the merger came within a week of the expert’s testimony.

June 2020

Comparative analysis of US vehicle listings platforms

Millions of new and used passenger vehicles and light trucks are sold in the United States each month, the vast majority by car dealerships. Vehicle inventory listing platforms facilitate the process of matching potential car buyers with sellers. These platforms, which appeared shortly after the emergence of the internet, serve as one of the largest sources of information for car shoppers and buyers. In the white paper “Comparative Analysis of US Vehicle Listings Platforms,” Partner Ales Filipi, Manager Assaph Aharoni, and Senior Consultant Sumit Banerjee analyze three listing platforms: Autotrader, CarGurus, and Cars.com. They use US data to examine each platform’s vehicle inventory; each platform’s success in attracting dealers; deal ratings the platforms offer; inventory turnover, which is an indication of both sales and dealership profitability; and average days vehicles are on the market with dealers using these platforms. These metrics help capture the state of the US vehicle market.

February 2020

Expert spotlight: From math to economic consulting

Bates White profiles its experts on its website though spotlight interviews. In 2020, one of the experts highlighted was Partner Rachel Grinberg. Her interview includes questions on how mathematics is applicable to economic consulting work and on being a female in a male-dominated profession. Her reply to the latter question: “Being a female testifier can be an asset—if only because it may be different than the usual. During my live testimony in London, the arbitration panel was all male, and of the five testifying experts, I was the only female. I felt that because of that difference—being female—the judges may have listened more carefully to what I had to say. As a woman, I may bring a different perspective and add value beyond my economic expertise.”