Forensic Economist - Economic Damages Expert

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Kan Chen, Ph.D. is a forensic economist and the Managing Director and Cofounder of Modus Economic Consulting LLC, based in San Antonio, Texas. He brings over a decade of applied economic research and financial analysis to high-stakes litigation, translating complex economic data into clear, defensible expert opinions for attorneys handling personal injury, wrongful death, and commercial disputes nationwide. Dr. Chen's practice centers on the calculation of economic damages, including lost earnings and earning capacity, worklife expectancy, fringe benefits, taxes, mitigation, wage growth, and present value/discounting. He prepares transparent expert reports and exhibits that document assumptions, data sources, and calculation methods step by step, and he provides responsive litigation support, including cross-examination materials and rapid recalculations under alternative assumptions, to keep his opinions rigorously defensible under scrutiny. Prior to founding Modus Economic Consulting, Dr. Chen served as Research Director and Consulting Economist at IMS Legal Strategies (formerly Analytic Focus LLC) in San Antonio. There he led litigation modeling and data analytics work, including programming testifying experts' statistical methodologies to evaluate liability, such as analyzing 40 residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) in high-profile fraud litigation and supporting class-action contract disputes. He also led teams reviewing opposing experts' reports, including those of prominent academics and CPAs, identifying methodological and data flaws in Fair Housing Act (FHA) and consumer protection litigation and supporting Daubert motions. His personal injury and wrongful death work involved calculating present values for lost earnings, earning capacities, and life care plans, frequently identifying flaws in opposing damages estimates. He also designed choice-based conjoint surveys to quantify a brand's impact on consumer choice in corporate publicity rights disputes, and authored technical exhibits, expert reports, and deposition materials, translating statistical findings into narratives for counsel. Dr. Chen's economic career spans the private and public sectors. As a Quantitative Analytics Consultant at PNC Bank (after its merger with BBVA USA), he researched recession monitoring, market bubble detection, yield-curve modeling, and jumbo-loan origination. As Senior Economist at BBVA USA in Houston, he forecasted GDP, inflation, and regional indicators; developed macroeconomic scenarios (including climate risk) for CECL and CCAR capital planning; and defended macroeconomic models before the Federal Reserve and external auditors. Earlier, he served as an Econometric Modeler (Consultant) at the International Monetary Fund, researching exchange rate forecasting and lecturing IMF staff on econometric techniques. Dr. Chen holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University and a B.A. in Finance and a B.Sc. in Mathematics from Peking University. His research on macroeconomic dynamics and exchange rates has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control and Economics Letters, and presented at conferences, including the International Atlantic Economic Society Conference and the Midwest Macroeconomics Meetings. He has been interviewed as an economic expert by the San Antonio Express-News, the Denver Business Journal, and El País. Dr. Chen is proficient in R, Stata, Python, and Matlab, and applies a broad econometric toolkit, including forecasting, regression, and time-series analysis, to litigation matters. His areas of expert focus include personal injury and wrongful death damages, lost earnings and earning capacity, present value and discounting, statistical and econometric methodology auditing, data analytics, and expert reporting and litigation support.