NERA Case Interview: Economic Consulting Cases and Examples

NERA case interview prep means economic consulting cases: estimating an economic effect that a legal or regulatory decision turns on, such as price-fixing damages, merger harm or a share-price loss. NERA publishes no case format, so this guide works through the published economic consulting cases from Bates White and Cornerstone Research and covers NERA's own hiring facts.

What is an economic consulting case interview?

An economic consulting case interview (the "econ consulting case interview", built on econ consulting cases) asks you to apply economics, not a business framework, to a litigation or regulatory question, and then defend the number you reach. NERA describes its work as economic analysis for law firms, corporations, regulators and governments, built on econometrics, regulatory economics, statistical analysis and valuation (nera.com/about, checked November 2026). The interview borrows that work in miniature.

The economic consulting industry (NERA, Analysis Group, CRA, Cornerstone Research and others) serves a specialized market that most case interview prep ignores. Standard case prep is necessary but not enough; the case interview frameworks guide covers the structuring half.

What are the four types of economic consulting cases?

Economic consulting cases fall into four types: litigation and damages, competition and mergers, regulatory, and finance and securities. The prompts below are our own illustrations of each type, not NERA questions.

A merger case follows five steps: define the market, measure concentration, assess competitive effects, test entry and weigh efficiencies.

1. Define the market with the hypothetical monopolist test: would a firm controlling the candidate products profitably impose a small but significant and non-transitory price increase (SSNIP)?
2. Measure concentration. HHI is the sum of squared market shares. The 2023 Merger Guidelines call a market with an HHI above 1,800 highly concentrated and a rise of more than 100 points a significant increase; a merger in such a market is presumed to harm competition (justice.gov, 2023 Merger Guidelines, checked November 2026). For a two-firm merger the rise equals 2 x share A x share B, so shares of 25% and 15% add 2 x 25 x 15 = 750 points.
3. Assess competitive effects. Would the merged firm raise prices alone (unilateral effects), or does the merger make coordination easier?
4. Test entry. Could new rivals discipline a post-merger price rise?
5. Weigh efficiencies. Do cost savings reach customers and outweigh the harm?

A securities damages case isolates the part of a share-price fall caused by the alleged misstatement. Use an event study: regress the stock on market and industry index prices over a clean pre-period, predict the class-period price, then match the significant gaps to news announcements. The Cornerstone case further down shows the method with numbers.

Which practice cases fit economic consulting cases?

None of the 92 cases in the Road to Offer library is an antitrust or damages case, so the closest fits are profit and pricing cases with data exhibits. None is NERA's own material, and NERA's careers pages publish no practice case.

Start free now: Race to the Bottom Airline Profitability is a McKinsey-style profit case in the airline industry. It has 7 questions, 2 with math, 2 exhibits, and a median of 20 minutes across 13 completed voice runs. An AI interviewer runs it out loud, shows each exhibit when you reach it and scores the debrief. Your first full case is free when you create an account.

Case (style, industry)	Quant difficulty	Qualitative difficulty	The math you run	Median time
Race to the Bottom Airline Profitability (McKinsey, airlines). 7 (2 with math), 2 exhibits.airlinesQuant difficulty mediumQualitative difficulty medium20 min· 13 voice runsTry free	medium	medium	Profit decline, revenue per flight	20 min13 voice runs20 min, 13 voice runs	Try free
City Bike Share Concession (McKinsey, urban transport). 9 (4 with math), 3 exhibits.urban transportQuant difficulty hardQualitative difficulty medium32 min· 11 voice runsTry free	hard	medium	Revenue by zone, 15-year concession value	32 min11 voice runs32 min, 11 voice runs	Try free
Lux Rides Vietnam Pricing (McKinsey, luxury mobility). 8 (3 with math), 3 exhibits.luxury mobilityQuant difficulty hardQualitative difficulty mediumFewer than 10 runsTry free	hard	medium	Landed cost, minimum price, revenue index	Fewer than 10 runsFewer than 10 runs	Try free

Two are adapted from consulting club casebooks (Wharton); City Bike Share Concession was written for Road to Offer. More are in the case library. Every debrief scores seven categories: structure (25% of the score), quantitative analysis (20%), business judgment (15%), and problem understanding, exhibit reading, communication and synthesis (10% each), with feedback on every question. Median times come from completed runs between June 25 and September 22, 2026, and count runs, not people.

How do you solve an economic consulting case?

You solve an economic consulting case in three parts: brainstorm the economics, run the calculations, then discuss the bigger picture. Bates White publishes exactly this structure for its case interviews (bateswhite.com interview tips, checked November 2026), and its worked case follows it.

• Brainstorming. Restate the question, ask clarifying questions and use the question's own wording. If it asks for "supply and demand factors", give both.
• Calculations. The interviewer gives numbers and you estimate others. Bates White's advice is to talk through the setup, state assumptions, simplify the math and double-check for misplaced zeroes.
• Conceptual discussion. Connect the number to the wider concept and look beyond the obvious effects. Bates White says how you support an answer matters more than a single "correct" answer.

Cornerstone Research gives similar advice for its analyst case: break questions into parts, consider the issue from several perspectives, take notes and ask questions, and say your thought process out loud (cornerstone.com analyst case examples, checked November 2026). Regression, event study and but-for analysis appear in the published cases; the table adds the other standard benchmarks; the case interview math practice guide drills the arithmetic.

How do you estimate damages in a but-for case?

You estimate but-for damages by building the price the buyer would have paid without the wrongdoing and multiplying the gap by the quantity bought. This original practice case uses invented numbers to show the full chain from the legal question to a figure, then to the questions an economist would be cross-examined on.

Prompt: "A manufacturer bought industrial packaging film from a group of suppliers that were later found to have fixed prices for two years. The manufacturer is suing for the overcharge. How would you estimate its damages?"

1. Clarify the claim. Confirm the cartel period (two years), what the client bought (500,000 rolls over the period) and what it paid (an average of $120 per roll). Ask whether the client bought directly from the cartel members, since that decides who can claim the overcharge.
2. Define the but-for world. Damages are the gap between what the client paid and what it would have paid without the cartel. The job is to estimate that but-for price.
3. Pick a benchmark. A before-and-after comparison uses prices outside the cartel period: $100 per roll in the year before and $102 in the year after, so a simple average gives about $101. A yardstick comparison would use a similar product or region the cartel did not reach.
4. Control for other causes. Raw material costs rose during the cartel period. A regression of price on input costs and demand, estimated on the clean years, says those costs alone would have lifted the price to about $104. So the but-for price is $104, not $101.
5. Compute the overcharge and damages. The overcharge is $120 minus $104, or $16 per roll, about 13% of the price paid. Across 500,000 rolls that is $16 x 500,000 = $8 million in single damages. The Clayton Act lets a successful private plaintiff recover threefold the damages sustained plus costs and attorney's fees (15 U.S.C. 15, checked November 2026), so state which figure you are giving: three times $8 million is $24 million.
6. Sanity-check the answer. Test the 13% overcharge against the benchmark choice: using $101 instead of $104 would raise damages to $9.5 million, so the cost adjustment is worth $1.5 million and will be the first thing the other side attacks.

Follow-up questions to expect:

• Did the client pass part of the overcharge on to its own customers, and does that matter for who can claim it?
• Why is the year after the cartel a fair benchmark, given that prices can stay high while a cartel unwinds?
• What would make the regression unreliable, such as too few clean years or a demand shock in the same period?
• How would you explain the $16 overcharge to a judge with no economics training?

A strong answer keeps the legal question, the economic method and the number linked at every step. That link is what economic consulting interviewers are listening for.

What do the published economic consulting case interview examples teach?

The published economic consulting case interview examples teach one habit: the first number is rarely the final number, because other causes have to be stripped out. Two firms we checked publish full cases with analysis. We summarize them here in our own words; read the originals for the data tables.

The Bates White battery case ends with a question about who is harmed, and the answer depends on elasticity. If demand for the manufacturer's phones is inelastic, it can pass the higher battery price on and consumers are harmed. If demand is elastic, the manufacturer may absorb the cost, though consumers can still pay more if every phone maker's batteries were price-fixed (bateswhite.com example case, checked November 2026). Read the original at Bates White's example case interview and Cornerstone's analyst case examples, then use our Cornerstone Research case interview guide for the firm-specific walk-through.

Which economics concepts do economic consulting interviews test?

Economic consulting interviews test a short list of microeconomics and statistics concepts, and you should be able to explain what each measures and why it matters in a given case.

You do not need a PhD to discuss these; you need to explain what they measure and when to use them. The consulting math formulas page covers the arithmetic side, and the pricing strategy cases guide helps with elasticity-style reasoning.

What economic consulting interview questions come up?

Economic consulting interview questions on behavior probe research, accuracy and writing, so prepare examples from quantitative work. The questions below are our suggestions for what to prepare, not reported NERA questions. NERA says it looks for people who are intellectually curious, methodical, attentive to detail and strong communicators (nera.com careers, checked November 2026).

For the "why economic consulting" answer, tie it to applied economics with real consequences, project-based variety and the litigation and regulatory setting. The behavioral interview consulting guide covers the STAR structure, and your consulting resume should show the quantitative work you will be asked about.

What does NERA stand for, and what does NERA consulting do?

NERA stands for National Economic Research Associates, an economic consulting firm founded in 1961 and part of Marsh. NERA's about page says it celebrates 65 years in 2026 and gives expert analysis and testimony to law firms, corporations, regulators and governments. Its locations page lists more than 500 professionals in 22 offices: 12 in the Americas, 7 in Europe and 3 in Asia Pacific (checked November 2026).

NERA's capabilities page lists 12 areas of expertise: antitrust and competition, auctions, bankruptcy and financial distress, consumer protection, intellectual property, international arbitration, labor and employment, product liability and mass torts, securities and finance, survey research and consumer behavior, transfer pricing and white collar. It also lists industries from energy and healthcare to digital platforms and transport. Treat it as a specialist firm with broad applied-economics cases; the types of consulting firms guide shows where economic consulting sits next to strategy firms.

What is the NERA interview process?

The NERA interview process is not published round by round; NERA says it aims to learn about your analytic capabilities and may ask you to complete a case study. Applicants submit a CV, cover letter and transcripts, and some roles also ask for a writing sample. Applications go through the Marsh job site, and experienced applicants can apply at any time. Junior hiring has a seasonal rhythm that peaks each fall (nera.com open roles, checked November 2026). Experienced applicants may be asked to present job market papers or economic publications.

NERA's career-path page describes a junior Researcher path and a senior Consultant path, and its open roles page describes summer internships for final-year undergraduates and current master's and PhD students. Round counts, interview lengths and any written tests are reported only by candidates and vary by office, so treat any specific round table as a candidate report. For internship comparisons, see our best consulting internships ranking.

How do NERA, Compass Lexecon, CRA, Cornerstone and Analysis Group differ?

NERA, Compass Lexecon, CRA, Cornerstone Research and Analysis Group all hire for economic reasoning, and each has its own interview guide here. Read the firm-specific page for the process you actually face:

• Compass Lexecon: Compass Lexecon interview guide for its stages and 2027 deadlines.
• Charles River Associates: CRA case interview guide for its guided economic cases and a worked HHI merger case.
• Cornerstone Research: Cornerstone Research case interview guide for its published analyst cases.
• Analysis Group: Analysis Group interview guide for its process and questions.
• FTI Consulting: FTI Consulting interview guide.

To compare these specialists with the strategy firms, read boutique versus MBB firms and top boutique consulting firms. For more case types beyond economics, see case interview examples.

Sources (checked November 2026)

• NERA, about, careers, career path, open roles, locations and capabilities pages: nera.com/about.html, nera.com/careers.html, nera.com/career-path.html, nera.com/open-roles.html, nera.com/locations.html, nera.com/capabilities.html
• Bates White, case interview tips and example case interview
• Cornerstone Research, analyst case examples
• US Department of Justice and FTC, 2023 Merger Guidelines (HHI thresholds, hypothetical monopolist test)
• 15 U.S.C. 15 (Clayton Act, threefold damages)
• Other prep guides read for coverage gaps: Hacking the Case Interview, "Economic Consulting Case Interview: Step-By-Step Guide"; Management Consulted, "Economic Consulting Case Interview Questions"