Leaders of Native American tribes bear great responsibility when establishing and enacting tribal law and policy. These precepts, which are the embodiment of tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance, affect all facets of tribal government operations, programs, and services. Given this, tribal leaders must understand a wide array of complex issues, including education, health care, housing, social services, public safety, natural resources, business, and economic development. Meister Economic Consulting provides economic research and analysis to help tribal leaders make informed decisions about these and other issues facing Native American tribes. Over the past two decades, our experts have worked on behalf of more than 120 Native American tribes.

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We offer a variety of services to tribal governments, businesses, and associations, including:

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• Economic development consulting

• Health and socioeconomic needs assessments

• Public policy analysis

• Economic impact analysis

• Analysis of gaming issues

• Surveys and statistical analysis

• Litigation consulting

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Economic Development

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Meister Economic Consulting collaborates with its strategic partners to advise tribal governments on economic development and diversification. Our services include analyzing infrastructure and investment needs; feasibility studies; strengthening and reforming public and private institutions; developing plans for job/income generation; identifying business opportunities and assisting with business development; assisting with development of master plans; and honing competence in trade practices, including the promotion of exports.

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Health and Socioeconomic Needs Assessments

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Meister Economic Consulting analyzes social and economic conditions of tribes—including education, health, employment, housing, poverty, and income—in order to help tribal leaders assess current conditions and needs to determine areas that may warrant further investigation and remediation. We conduct comparative analyses over time to identify trends and compare tribal conditions to relevant benchmarks to identify disparities.

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Public Policy Analysis

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Meister Economic Consulting helps inform and shape public policy through the use of economic and financial research and analysis. We assist tribal governments, businesses, and associations understand the economic impacts of various types of public policies, including legislation, regulations, government programs and services, taxes, and ballot propositions. We also provide testimony on behalf of our clients before tribal and non-tribal political and regulatory bodies.

 

Economic Impact Analysis

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Meister Economic Consulting uses economic impact analysis to estimate the direct and secondary effects of projects, businesses, institutions, industries, events, and public policies on tribal, national, state, regional, and local economies. Our economic impact analyses provide tribal governments, businesses, and associations the most comprehensive measurement of the total economic impact on jobs, taxes, sales, and wages. Our clients often find it valuable to share this information with their surrounding communities in their public and government relations and lobbying efforts.

 

Indian Gaming

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Meister Economic Consulting conducts objective, authoritative research and analysis of Indian gaming in litigation, regulatory, public policy, public and government relations, business planning and operations, and economic development matters. We provide a wide range of economic consulting services, including: market assessments; feasibility studies; public policy analysis; economic and fiscal impact studies; tribal impact analyses; tribal needs assessments; survey design, implementation, and data analysis; expert research and analysis in litigation and regulatory matters; and assistance with public and government relations efforts.

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Surveys and Statistical Analysis

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Meister Economic Consulting has extensive experience in all phases of qualitative and quantitative survey research, including developing and pretesting survey instruments; designing statistical procedures for selecting a sample; implementing and managing surveys; analyzing survey results; reporting results and conclusions; and critiquing others’ survey methodologies.

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We use a wide variety of statistical analysis of data to provide insights about tribal populations, customers, sellers, geographic areas, events, and markets.  We provide descriptive statistics to summarize and detail data sets and inferential statistics to make inferences about a population based upon samples of data from that population.  We also use statistical analysis for forecasting purposes.

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Litigation Consulting

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Meister Economic Consulting provides economic research, analysis, and expert testimony in various types of litigation matters. We have provided assistance to attorneys on all phases of pretrial and trial practice, including: assistance with discovery; development of economic, financial, and statistical models; expert testimony; and critique of analyses by opposing experts. Our consultants have served as damages and industry experts.