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Data for Decisions, LLC (DfD) is a boutique economic consulting firm specializing in labor & employment and the life sciences. Based in Boston and founded by Lakshmi Bloom in 2007, Data for Decisions has grown in size, scope, and influence, all while retaining its personal and collaborative culture. We partner with our clients – leading companies, law firms, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies – and provide them with bespoke and actionable analyses. We see our work as contributing to the broader social and economic good through improvements in the workplace or improvements in access to vaccines and quality healthcare.

Our labor & employment services include providing economic and statistical expertise in employment discrimination disputes; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) studies; U.S. Department of Labor audits and investigations; and economic damages calculations.

Our life sciences services include the broad socio-economic valuation of vaccines and other health technologies, estimating the economic burden of diseases, designing patient-reported outcome questionnaires, and publishing thought leadership policy and practice articles.

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David Kantor, In Memoriam

Data for Decisions is mourning the loss of our beloved colleague, David Kantor, who passed away on August 25th. His work was foundational to our company and could be characterized as meticulous, with particular attention to programming accuracy and elegance. He disliked sloppiness in programming and could be relied upon to “gently” suggest improvements to our code. As such, he was cherished as our in-house “Programming Guru”! Most importantly we appreciated his patience, loyalty, kindness and intelligence.

David was one of our original team members, a “DfD Lifer”! He worked with us on labor and employment projects dating back to the early 2000s. He used his in-depth knowledge of Stata and his many years of experience to develop proprietary products that are frequently relied upon by our labor team. In recent years he also contributed to the work of the life sciences team, where once again he developed software for us to use in the years ahead. Just as recently as two weeks before he passed, he was updating the documentation for this software and communicating with us about how to utilize it.

David Kantor had advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science and more than 40 years of experience in programming and systems analysis. He specialized in Stata programming and was an active member of the Stata User’s Group. He also had extensive experience working with U.S. Census Data and Current Population Survey Data, in the contexts of both research and economic valuation. Before coming to Data for Decisions, David worked at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies.

In his spare time, he enjoyed woodworking, playing and arranging music, bike riding, and keeping his 150-year-old house going. He was devoted to his family, especially his beloved son Eric, who was at his bedside through his most difficult recent months and days.

May his memory be a blessing to us and to all who had the fortune to know him. We will honor and respect his memory, always.

Daniel Tortorice, Senior Economist

Daniel Tortorice is an associate professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross. Dan received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he wrote his thesis on expectations and unemployment in macroeconomic models. With ongoing research in dynamic macroeconomic modeling, finance, and vaccine research and development, Dan brings vital macroeconomic, modeling, and data analysis expertise to the life sciences practice at Data for Decisions.

In his spare time, he enjoys coaching his son’s little league teams and walking his Labradoodle, Rhody.

Younghwan Song, Senior Economist

Younghwan Song is a professor of economics at Union College. Younghwan received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he trained and wrote his thesis in labor economics. With ongoing research and several publications in topics surrounding the U.S. labor market, Younghwan brings a deep understanding of labor economics to the labor & employment practice at Data for Decisions. He also has econometric and statistical expertise that is invaluable to the work done in the life sciences practice.

In his spare time, he enjoys playing tennis and golf with his son.

Daria Burnes, Senior Economist

Daria Burnes earned a Ph.D. in economics at the University of California, Irvine, where she specialized in labor, urban, and public economics. Daria joined Data for Decisions after spending many years working on wage and hour disputes, discrimination class action lawsuits, pay equity studies, merger reviews, price-fixing class action lawsuits, and exclusionary vertical agreements. Daria brings strong expertise in economic modeling and statistical analysis to her work with both the labor & employment and life sciences practices at Data for Decisions.

In her spare time, she enjoys ballet barre and refining her yoga practice.

Ronan Arthur, Senior Epidemiologist, Life Sciences

Ronan Arthur is a postdoctoral research fellow in both the School of Medicine and the biology department at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford, where he wrote his dissertation on trust and behavior change during the West Africa Ebola epidemic of 2014 and infectious disease modeling for endogenous behavioral responses during epidemics. Ronan brings important infectious disease modeling and complex systems expertise to the life sciences team.

In his spare time, he enjoys studying the craft of filmmaking.

Lakshmi Reddy Bloom, Founder & CEO

Lakshmi Bloom has more than 30 years of experience in survey design and analysis, human resource information systems, and economic modeling. She specializes in collecting and processing quantitative and qualitative data for policy analysis, executive decision-making, and employment-related litigation. Her strength lies in her ability to bridge the divide between data and decision-making, something she credits to the analytical yet policy-oriented graduate training she received at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. Lakshmi enjoys an ongoing collaboration with her husband David and works with him on endeavors in both the labor & employment and life sciences practices at Data for Decisions.

Lakshmi loves being a first-time grandmother and looks forward to reigniting her love of travel post-pandemic.

David E. Bloom, Senior Consultant, Testifying Expert

David E. Bloom is the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). David is also faculty director of HSPH’s Value of Vaccination Research Network and a founding co-editor of Elsevier’s Journal of the Economics of Ageing. He received a B.S. in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in economics and demography from Princeton University. David has worked extensively in the areas of labor, population, and health economics and has served as a testifying expert and senior consultant for Data for Decisions for more than 10 years. He has taught numerous courses on labor, health, population, and statistics and econometrics at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. David is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Andrew Carnegie Fellow of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and a research associate/fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Center for Economic Policy Research, and IZA – The Institute of Labor Economics. He has published more than 500 articles, book chapters, and books.

In his spare time, he enjoys being “Thatha” to his new grandson and an amateur mixologist.

Erin Johnson, Senior Economist/Practice Leader, Labor & Employment

Erin Johnson holds a Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley, where her fields were labor economics, public finance, and econometrics. Prior to joining Data for Decisions, Erin was an assistant professor in the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a lecturer in the Economics Department of Wellesley College, and a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group. In her research, Erin used large datasets to address questions at the intersection of health policy and labor economics, and she brings this expertise to her work at Data for Decisions. A clear thinker and communicator, with outstanding labor economics and econometrics skills, Erin excels in her role as leader for the labor & employment practice.

In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her three kids and hiking with her dogs.

JP Sevilla, Senior Economist/Practice Leader, Life Sciences

JP Sevilla earned a Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University, and a J.D. from George Mason University. He is a member of the DC Bar and a research associate at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. Before joining Data for Decisions, JP was an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, and an ethics fellow at the Harvard Law School. His expertise and interests are in the economic and normative aspects of global health; cost-benefit analysis; public sector priority-setting, law, and economics; and applied econometrics and microeconomics. Creativity, clarity, and rigor are JP’s hallmarks, which he brings fully to his role as a leader for the life sciences practice.

In his spare time, he enjoys vegan cooking and watching films that his colleagues refer to as “obscure.”

Joe Grimaldo, CFO & Forensic Accountant

Joe Grimaldo has been a partner with the Massachusetts accounting firm of O’Connor, Maloney & Company for more than 25 years. He has a broad range of accounting experience, including business valuation, tax return preparation on the individual and corporate level, audit work, estate planning, and forecasting for corporate finance transactions. In addition to serving as chief financial officer at Data for Decisions, Joe contributes his outstanding forensic accounting expertise to the economic valuation component of the labor & employment practice.

In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family at their
home on Cape Cod and serving on several for-profit and non-profit
boards.