Pierre B. Vilain

Pierre Vilain is an economist who applies microeconomics, urban and transportation economics and econometrics to a wide array of advisory services. Dr. Vilain has over 30 years’ experience providing advice on transit, rail and toll road economics, including forecasting demand, revenues and cost inflation. He has advised numerous clients on fare policy analysis, including the institution of distance-based or time-of-day fare structures where he has quantified the impacts on ridership, revenues and emissions of different fare strategies. Dr. Vilain has advised on major transit development initiatives that have been implemented in New York, Boston, Puerto Rico and Seattle. For toll road and parking assets he has advised owners and investors on revenue and demand projections, including providing investment-grade forecasts in the context of public-private partnerships. His experience in issues relating to mobility and congestion are reflected in a wide body of published papers and presentations at professional conferences, and Dr. Vilain was appointed to an advisory board reviewing the FHWA vehicle-miles travelled forecasts in 2020. His advisory practice also includes applying decision support and cost-benefit analysis, with applications including evaluation of economic development programs and policies, and the valuation of environmental costs and benefits. He teaches a graduate-level course in cost-benefit analysis at Columbia University as an Adjunct Professor, and has been an invited lecturer at the New York University Stern School of Business.