EB-5 COMMUNITY ECONOMISTS
Sean Flynn
Impact Econometrics LLC
Sean Flynn is an associate professor
of economics at Scripps College in
Claremont, California. He is the
author of the international best-seller
Economics for Dummies, which has
now been translated into seven foreign
languages, as well as the coauthor,
along with Campbell McConnell and
Stanley Brue, of the world’s best-selling
Michael Kester
Impact DataSource LLC
Michael Kester is the lead EB-5 economist with Impact DataSource LLC, an
economic research, analysis and consulting firm based out of Austin, TX. In the
past twenty years, Impact DataSource has
completed more than 2,500 economic
impact analyses in all industry sectors
across the United States for firms,
projects and activities. Leveraging this
66
college economics textbook, Economics:
Principles, Problems, and Policies.
The later is also the world’s best selling
textbook of any subject. His research
specialties are behavioral economics
and behavioral finance, with a focus on
irrational investors.
Flynn is an economist and the
founder of Impact Econometrics LLC,
headquartered in Upland, California.
Flynn is skilled in conducting
USCIS-compliant economic impact
studies involving complex input/output
models, such as IMPLAN, for EB-5
development projects.
He started Impact Econometrics after
completing an economic impact analysis
to assist a friend who was utilizing
EB-5 money for a major hotel project
in California. Now he works with top
immigration lawyers to both fund
American entrepreneurs and to give
international investors the opportunity
to become U.S. citizens. Flynn has
consulted on a number of projects in
fields such as hospitality, retirement,
and recreation in order to calculate the
economic impact related to construction,
operation, remodeling, and more.
Flynn taught economics and finance
for seven years at Vassar College in
Poughkeepsie, New York, before relocating to sunny southern California, where
he has taught since 2010 at Scripps
College in Claremont.
An avid martial artist, Flynn is a
former aikido national champion and
has coached five of his students to U.S.
national aikido titles. Flynn’s research
specialties are behavioral economics
and behavioral finance, with a focus on
irrational investors. A commentator on
FOX Business, ABC News, and NPR,
Flynn holds a Ph.D. in economics from
the University of California Berkeley,
where he completed his dissertation
under the supervision of 2001 Nobel
Laureate George Akerlof.
deep experience in economic analysis,
Impact DataSource has become an EB-5
industry leader in economic studies,
Targeted Employment Area analysis and
due diligence.
As Impact DataSource’s lead EB-5
economist, Kester has been in charge of
a team that has prepared more than 125
comprehensive EB-5 economic impact
analyses and assisted clients in obtaining hundreds of TEA letters. Impact
DataSource is also a part of USAdvisor’s
due diligence team. Kester has conducted
EB-5-specific economic analyses of
various project types and sizes including
hotels, assisted living facilities, multi- and
single-family developments, mixed-use
developments, infrastructure projects,
oil and gas projects, and manufacturing
firms. He continues to focus on providing
EB-5 consulting, services and deliverables
that reflect the evolving needs of EB-5
clients and also the changing requirements of USCIS.
Outside of client work, Kester and
the Impact DataSource team have other
significant industry involvement. Kester
is on the Invest in the USA (IIUSA)
EB-5 editorial committee, offering the
economist’s perspective and authoring
several articles for the Regional Center
Business Journal, and he has led and
participated in several economist-related
webinars and panels. Impact DataSource
also provides free public tools, including
a user-friendly TEA map, to assist and
educate EB-5 stakeholders in economic
analysis and TEA-related matters.
Kester is originally from Wichita,
Kansas and graduated from Kansas
State University with a Bachelor of
Science in Mathematics. He moved to
Austin after working several years for
Deloitte Consulting in New York City.
He enjoys spending time with his wife
Emily, daughter Isabella, and Airedale
mutt Ozzie. Whatever time might be left
is split between playing keys in a local
Austin band, and soccer.
EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE