EB-5 COMMUNITY ECONOMISTS
John Barrett
Performance Economics
John Barrett began his career as an
economist working for the U.S.
Department of Commerce’s Bureau of
Economic Analysis (BEA). He was a
regional economist in the BEA’s Regional
Economic Analysis Division, the same
division that produces the RIMS II
model.
After leaving the BEA, Barrett held
Jeffrey Carr
Economic & Policy Resources Inc.
Jeffrey Carr is President and Senior
Economist of Economic & Policy
Resources Inc., and has more than 35
years of experience as an economist-analyst. At EPR, Carr has completed
more than 175 assignments under the
EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program in
43 states and U.S. Territories. These
assignments include economic impact
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the position of Director of Research at
the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI), a public
policy think tank housed in the economics department at Suffolk University in
Boston. The research at BHI focused on
tax policy and its effect on growth and
employment. He was lead researcher on
the team that developed the computable
general equilibrium framework that
would become BHI’s trademarked
STAMP model.
Following his position at Suffolk
University, Barrett took the position
of Principal at IHS Global Insight, the
world’s leading economic forecasting
and consulting firm. In his capacity as
Principal he led teams of researchers/
economists on engagements for large
Fortune 500 clients, including Intel,
Walmart, S.W.I.F.T. and Hewlett
Packard. As part of the engagement for
the European Commission, his team
authored three chapters for the EC’s
2009 report, “Sectoral Growth Drivers
and Competitiveness in the European
Union,” including a sole authorship on the
chapter on profitability.
Prior to founding Performance
Economics, Barrett was Vice President of
Strategic Analytics at Mullen in Boston,
Advertising Age’s 2014 Agency A-List # 2
Agency. He managed the team of analysts
in the Strategic Analytics department
that ensured that clients were getting the
maximum ROI for the advertising dollar.
Their clients included JetBlue, U.S. Cellular
and Barnes & Noble. Since founding
and managing Performance Economics,
Barrett has been the economist on many
EB-5 engagements. He has also been a
panelist at several EB-5 related conferences.
He advises attendees on issues regarding
EB-5 economic impact modeling and
provides guidance around the latest issues
the USCIS has raised concerning job
impacts in the EB-5 program. He has
been a guest speaker at several conferences
for the American Immigration Lawyers’
Association, Association to Invest in USA
and Immigration Law Weekly.
assessment studies for regional centers,
I-526 investor petition filings, and
I-829 proceedings. Carr also has worked
on dozens of assignments relating to
Targeted Employment Area design,
drafting of EB-5 project business plans in
all EB-5 settings, and on regional center
business-operations plans for I-924 applicants and amendments. Carr has lectured
on EB-5 economic impact studies and
EB-5 project business plans throughout
the United States and China. He also
was a member of the “Best Practices
Committee” in 2013 and currently serves
on the Policy Committee for IIUSA. In
addition, Carr has extensive experience in
economic analysis, economic forecasting,
regional economic and fiscal impact
analysis, financial analysis, economic-tax
revenue forecasting, and preparing and
presenting state economic-fiscal data to
Wall Street bond rating agencies. For the
past 26 years, he also has served as the
consulting State Economist and Principal
Tax Revenues Analyst-Forecaster for
the past five Governors of his home
state—including six years for current
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, eight
years for former Governor James H.
Douglas, 12 years for former Vermont
Governor Howard B. Dean and for
Governor Madeline Kunin and Richard
A. Snelling. He has been Forecast
Manager for more than 25 years for his
state for the New England Economic
Partnership (NEEP)—a regional group
of business-academic forecasters. He has
been a member of the NEEP Board of
Directors for the past five years. In the
late 1980s, Carr worked in Washington
D.C. for a member of the U.S. House
of Representatives representing the
state of Michigan. He holds a B.S. and
a M.S. degree from the University of
Vermont. He currently holds several
appointed Board positions and held
elected office in his hometown from
2001 to 2010.
EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE