Research & Project Management
Economist
Ratib Ali
Ratib Ali has a PhD in Economics from Boston College, with a focus in industrial organization and competition policy.
Ratib’s research revolved around how government regulation informs and impacts firm incentives. Ratib’s PhD thesis modeled demand for and supply of air travel to estimate the marginal cost of an “airport slot” (permit to fly one flight) at Reagan Airport, allowing him to compute the changes in consumer welfare stemming from structural remedies mandated by DOJ following the US Airways-American Airlines merger. By exploiting the exogeneity of Newark Airport’s dissolution of slot controls, Ratib also investigated the foreclosure incentives engendered by the “use-it-or-lose-it” feature of freely provided airport slots.
Prior to joining CD, Ratib worked at The Brattle Group as an Associate, where he focused in analyzing antitrust claims and estimating economic damages in industries as varied as healthcare, e-commerce, gig economy, and fine arts. Ratib is the former Economic Analyst at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, Antitrust Division. There, his economic analyses and litigation support aided in enforcing federal and state antitrust laws in investigations spanning pharmaceutical, technology, and aviation industries.
Ratib also enjoys teaching; he taught Principles and Intermediate Microeconomics at Boston College from 2016 to 2019, Principles and Cultural Economics at Emerson College from 2019 to 2020, and teaches Intermediate Microeconomics at Tufts University since 2023.
Economist
Justin Latona
Justin Latona rejoins CD in the final stages of his economics doctoral program at UT Austin, where he expects to receive his PhD by Spring 2026. In his doctoral studies, Justin specialized in Industrial Organization and Econometrics, focusing on the economics of R&D and intellectual property, competition, price theory, and game theory.
Prior to joining the U. Texas economics department, Justin spent seven years at CD, where he joined as an Analyst and was rapidly promoted to Project Manager, a role in which he developed economic expert opinions and analysis for IP and antitrust litigation.
Outside of litigation, clients often seek Justin’s aid in portfolio valuation, license negotiations, product market demand estimation, and competitive analysis.
Justin has worked on matters across the US, Europe, and Asia involving complex technologies in industries including telecommunications, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer products. Justin has extensive experience in issues involving standard-essential patents, F/RAND license terms and conditions, and corresponding negotiations.
Justin is adept at designing and estimating complex structural models, modeling and solving dynamic problems, parametric and nonparametric econometrics, nonlinear estimation, and—in general—leveraging microeconomic and econometric theory to create efficient and innovative empirical solutions.
Justin’s research agenda concerns the value of patent protection, new technologies, and R&D incentives and outputs. Justin’s dissertation is the first study to structurally respond to the “quantity vs. quality” debate surrounding modern Chinese patent subsidy policies.
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Economist
Ngoc Ngo
Ngoc Ngo completed her PhD in Applied Economics with a focus on Industrial Organization at Northeastern University in 2019. Before her doctoral studies, Ngoc attended Bates College, where she graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Economics.
Ngoc’s PhD dissertation applied a modified version of the random-coefficient discrete choice model to quantify the impact of United Airlines’ decision to cease its hub operations at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on consumer welfare and the firm’s profits. In general, Ngoc is passionate about working with data to formulate economic models to solve real-world problems.
Since joining CD, Ngoc has built models and conducted analyses related to damage calculation, valuation of new technologies and determining reasonable royalty terms in telecommunication and pharmaceutical industries. Ngoc is developing improved algorithms to rank patents and evaluate innovators’ patent portfolio; and has worked on various economic research to enhance methodologies used in Intellectual Property related litigation.
Senior Associate
Pinar Gencer
Dr. Pinar Gencer is an expert in patent valuation and economic analysis for litigation, with a focus on patent infringement, FRAND disputes, and preliminary injunctions. She supports both patent owners and technology implementers in licensing and damages assessments before U.S. district courts and the International Trade Commission (ITC). Her work spans complex issues such as exclusion orders, standard-essential patents, and the negotiation of fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms.
Pinar brings a deep understanding of accounting and financial analysis to intellectual property matters. She draws on public financial disclosures and established accounting principles to uncover insights about the value of patents and portfolios. Her valuation work covers a broad range of technologies, including cellular, IEEE 802.11, and HEVC standards, with industry experience in telecommunications, semiconductors, satellite systems, and pharmaceuticals.
Pinar earned her PhD in Accounting from the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research on corporate conduct and financial reporting was recognized by Harvard Business School, where she received one of six Rising Scholar Awards in accounting. Prior to entering economic consulting, she taught financial accounting at UT Dallas.
Associate
Chen Wang
Chen Wang received his Ph.D. in Economics from Clemson University in 2019 and Master’s degree in Economics from North Carolina State University in 2013.
Chen’s fields of interest include industrial organization, applied econometrics, and empirical microeconomics. His job market paper analyzes competition among firms and their choices on product quality and variety in markets with unified final good prices as applied to the U.S. film industry. By constructing a theoretical model and applying multiple econometric methods, this research reveals the previously unknown effect of expected market demand of the release week on the choices of films’ production budgets and genres, which are proxies for quality and variety, respectively.
In addition to research, Chen has extensive teaching experience as an instructor at Clemson University. He taught Principles of Microeconomics and Principles of Macroeconomics from 2015 to 2019.
Prior to joining CD, Chen was a transfer pricing Economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC in San Francisco. At PwC, Chen participated in and managed a wide range of transfer pricing projects serving various clients, which are mostly large multinational enterprises around the globe.
