Patricia L. Pacey, Ph.D.

​

 

Dr. Pacey formed her economic and business consulting firm, now known as Pacey Economics, Inc., in the early 1980’s while she was teaching at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is frequently called upon to assess economic issues in the litigation arena. In her litigation support she incorporates labor market data and other micro- and macroeconomic data to measure economic damages for claims relating to personal injury, wrongful death, and employment termination as well as for commercial and class action matters. She has wide and diverse experience testifying as an expert witness in state and federal courts and also before legislative bodies.

 

In addition to litigation work, the firm contracts with government agencies and corporations to conduct economic studies. Since 2000, Pacey Economics, Inc. has contracted with the Office of the State Auditor to develop the model measuring the impact of future educational funding and spending for K-12 education required by Amendment 23, replicated and critiqued the Colorado Lottery forecast model, provided an analysis of the economic performance of the Regional Transportation District (RTD), among other projects. Pacey Economics, Inc. was also awarded several contracts by the Colorado Legislative Council to conduct the Colorado School District Cost of Living Study and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) awarded the firm a nearly year-long contract to conduct a comprehensive review of funding and student performance issues in our K-12 system. Dr. Pacey is retained by Colorado Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) to conduct economic and fiscal impact studies, analyze the impacts/benefits of alternative pension plans as well as other economic related analyses for the organization. Over the past two decades she has regularly assisted the Boulder Municipal Employee's Association (BMEA) in their wage and benefit contract negotiations.

 

Dr. Pacey graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from the University of Florida and went on to receive her Ph.D. in economics, also with honors, from the same institution. Upon receiving her Ph.D., she became an analyst for the then nascent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in Washington D.C., preparing cost estimates for proposed legislation related to education, human resources, and Social Security. She left government service to join the faculty of the University of Colorado where she taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses including antitrust, managerial and financial economics, microeconomics, statistics, and econometrics and published articles in The Southern Economic Journal, The Journal of Industrial Economics, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Business, and Telecommunications Policy.

 

Dr. Pacey formerly served as the Vice Chair of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE), the coordinating agency that establishes higher education policy and funding, and worked with the board of Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting System (RMPBS) from 2014 to 2020. She has participated as a speaker/lecturer for continuing legal education programs, is a member of several economic organizations and of Beta Gamma Sigma, an honorary business fraternity, and is active in fulfilling other community service commitments.