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ary Robbins is president of Fiscal Associates, an Arlington, Virginia, economic consulting firm. He also is a senior research fellow for the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization located in Lewisville, Texas.

Robbins developed The Fiscal Associates Inc. Model, a general equilibrium, econometric model of the U.S. economy. The Model explicitly incorporates detailed fiscal and monetary policies and their effects on both the real and financial sectors of the economy via the return to capital investment, interest rates, output, and employment. Over the last fifteen years the Model has been used to analyze the economic and revenue effects of major tax bills and numerous tax proposals.

Robbins has written on a wide range of issues including capital-gains taxation, depreciation reform, and the role of tax policy in the savings-and-loan crisis. Recent publications include an IPI report on The Case for Burying the Estate Tax and a chapter in the Joint Committee on Taxation Tax Modeling Project and 1997 Tax Symposium Papers. His analysis of the capital-gains tax reduction proposed by President Bush appeared in The Capital Gains Controversy: A Tax Analysts Reader, published by Tax Advocates and Analysts. A discussion of taxation, interest rates, and the cost of capital appeared in Technology and Economic Policy, edited by Professor Dale Jorgenson.

Before founding Fiscal Associates with his wife, Aldona, Robbins served sixteen years in the U.S. Treasury Department. From 1982 to 1985, he was chief of the applied econometrics staff. He served as assistant to the under secretary for tax and economic affairs between 1981 and 1982 and as assistant to the director of the Office of Tax Analysis from 1975 to 1981. During the early 1970s, Robbins was one of the developers of the Treasury Tax Model, which is still the basis for revenue estimates done by the Treasury and the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Robbins is often cited on economic, tax, and health issues in newspapers, magazines, and periodicals. In addition to NRO, his articles on various economic and tax issues have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, Tax Notes and the Washington Times. He received his master's in economics from Southern Methodist University.

ldona Robbins is vice president of Fiscal Associates, an Arlington, Virginia, economic consulting firm. She also is a senior research fellow for the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization located in Lewisville, Texas.

Robbins' research centers on economic forecasting and the effect of fiscal policy on the economy. Publications cover a wide range of issues including how taxes affect the economy, the long-run financial problems facing retirement programs, and how government forecasting methods could be improved. Robbins co-authors the Economic Scorecard, a quarterly IPI publication, that tracks the economy and federal budget. Other recent publications include IPI reports on The Fiscal Plans of Al Gore and George Bush: A Comparison , Complicating the Federal Tax Code: A Look at the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and Salvaging Social Security: The Incredible Shrinking Trust Fund and What We Can Do About It.

Before starting Fiscal Associates with her husband, Gary, Robbins served as a senior economist in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 1979 to 1985. Her duties included staff work for the Secretary in his capacity as managing trustee of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. From 1974 to 1979, she was an economist in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor.

In addition to NRO, articles by Robbins' on the economy, taxes, and Social Security have appeared in The Dallas Morning News, Insight, Investor's Business Daily, San Diego Union Tribune, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times. She has testified before Congress on the Social Security earnings test, the estate tax, and broad-based tax reform. She received her doctorate in economics from the University of Pittsburgh.