Dr. David J. Gabel, Ph.D is BBB's Chief Economist. In this role, Dr. Gabel leads all research and methodology used by BBB to determine the economic feasibility of broadband deployment in the various projects presented to BBB for such analysis. As a global authority on the economics of the Internet, broadband, and telecommunications, Dr. Gabel brings broad and deep experience in the industry from the various perspectives of his past roles in regulatory oversight pertaining to cost and price modeling, service provider forecasting, state consumer advocacy issues, and academia.
In addition to his work with BBB, Dr. Gabel currently chairs the Economics Department of Queens College, City University of New York., and through his extensive research on the continuing evolution of communications has authored more than 40 publications exploring the economic aspects of this evolving industry.
Dr. Gabel's continuing body of work at Queens College is preceded by roles as Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Internet and Telecommunications Convergence Consortium; Affiliated Research Fellow, Columbia Institute for Tele-information, Columbia University Graduate School of Business (continuing); and at The Ohio State University as Senior Fellow, National Regulatory Research Institute. In addition to his current position leading the Economics Department at Queens College, Dr. Gabel also teaches Industrial Organization there, and has taught at Michigan State University and The Ohio State University.
Dr. Gabel's success and achievements in academia are augmented with his regulatory experience. In the Office of the Chief Economist at the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, among other duties, he was a testifying expert on telecommunications costing and pricing issues. While employed at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities he developed costing and pricing procedures for gas and electric services in addition to those for telecommunication services.
In the private sector, Dr. Gabel began to gain practical experience in telecommunications while in the employment of a small rural telephone company. He advanced to take a role within Dean Witter Reynolds advising management on various aspects of telecommunications network and hardware procurement practices. While at DWR, he developed economic impact models for analyzing various capital expenditure alternatives. Later, Dr. Gabel was employed by AT&T where he was responsible for developing interfaces between engineering simulation models and financial forecasting systems to analyze the impact of changes in demand on capital expenditures.