William Beach holds two titles at Heritage. He is the John M. Olin Senior Fellow in Economics and director of the Center for Data Analysis (CDA). As CDA Director, Beach oversees Heritage’s original statistical research on Social Security, crime, education, trade and a host of other issues, ensuring it is both rigorous in its technical scholarship and produced in time to help inform the public debate over the issue.

Under Beach’s leadership, Heritage has acquired one of the largest privately-held public-policy databases in the United States, as well as a variety of peer-reviewed analytical models. Together, these acquisitions allow the Center to produce some of the most sophisticated “numbers crunching” done anywhere in the world.

In addition to acquiring analytical models, Beach helps build them. He was instrumental in developing the state-of-the-art econometric models Heritage uses to estimate, in detail, how proposed tax changes will likely affect individuals, families, and various business sectors-as well as the overall national economy.
Under Beach’s direction, the CDA has progressed to the point that it today competes as an equal with the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget, the Joint Committee on Taxation, or any other government agency when it comes to “scoring” potential costs and benefits of legislation. Indeed, federal lawmakers often ask the Center to analyze legislation they have drafted, knowing they can get a reliable estimate more quickly from the CDA than from any Hill agency.

Prior to joining Heritage in 1995, Beach held a variety of posts in the public, private and academic sectors. He served as a litigation economist with two Kansas City, Missouri, law firms-Campbell & Bysfield and Watson, Ess, Marshall & Enggas-where he specialized in analyzing how anti-trust legal remedies would alter product pricing and availability. Later, as an economist for Missouri’s Office of Budget and Planning, he designed and managed the state’s econometric model and advised the governor on revenue and economic issues. After a stint in the corporate headquarters of Sprint United, Inc., Beach moved to the Washington, D.C., area to serve as president of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University.

A graduate of Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, Beach also holds a master’s degree in history and economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia.