Jack Wells has over 30 years’ experience as a transportation economist and public policy analyst, including academic teaching and service in both the congressional and executive branches of the federal government. He has conducted research, drafted legislation, advised senior policymakers and international bankers, and developed policy on every mode of transportation, with particular expertise in the benefit-cost analysis of safety regulations and transportation infrastructure investment, strategies to reduce congestion, and airline and railroad competition.
He served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Transportation (2004 – 2014) and at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2001 – 2004), and as Deputy Administrator at the Federal Railroad Administration (2000 – 2001). From 1993 to 2000 he served as a subcommittee staff director on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and previously conducted research on transportation economics and policy at the U.S. General Accounting Office. He has advised the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the European Investment Bank.
His academic work has included teaching economics at George Mason University (where he is currently a guest lecturer), editing the Journal of Transportation and Statistics, and serving on the boards of the Transportation Research Forum (TRF) and the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis (SBCA). He has a B.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Yale, both in Economics.