Kia ora and thanks for visiting my website. I’m Aaron Schiff and I am based in Auckland, New Zealand. The work I like best involves wringing clarity out of quantitative datasets (big or small). Sometimes I use economics to make sense of what we find, but often I just coax the data to speak for itself.

I provide quantitative data analysis and applied economics consulting services to worldwide clients through my business, Schiff Consulting.

Nowadays a lot of my work involves contributing quantitative data analysis to evaluation projects. I do cost-benefit analysis for evaluation too. Some of my other areas of expertise are forecasting, policy analysis, predictive modelling, geospatial analysis, and data visualisation.

I’m good at explaining complex concepts and data analysis. I am a detail-oriented numbers person who also enjoys figuring out how to explain what I found and how I did it in simple terms.

I received a PhD in economics from the University of Auckland in 2005. After graduating, I had a postdoctoral fellowship to research the economics of intellectual property at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo from 2006 to 2008. When I returned to New Zealand in 2009, I worked as both a university lecturer in economics and a consultant for a few years. I switched to full-time consulting in 2010 and started my own consulting business, Schiff Consulting, in 2014. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to be able to work independently for many different clients around the world. I also collaborate regularly with other consultants and some of my regular collaborators are Dovetail, Julian King & Associates, and Fresh Info.

I’m an expert user of R and use it for all aspects of data wrangling and analysis. I enjoy making data visualisations and I’ve developed my own set of tools for producing high-quality charts for publication using ggplot2 and friends. I also like to make dashboards using Observable Framework, some of which are in the gallery on this site.

I try to be a straightforward and reliable person to work with. I just like to focus on interesting problems and get things done. I prioritise quality and attention to detail over quantity in my work, and I’m strict about time management and meeting deadlines. I keep my overheads very low so my charge-out rates are a lot less than big consultancies for the same type of work.

If you’re interested in working with me either as a client or a collaborator, please send me an e-mail: aaron@schiff.nz.