Dr. Jacob M. Benus, Executive Director for Research

Dr. Jacob M. Benus, co-founder of IMPAQ International, serves as Executive Director for Research for the firm.  In this role, he brings more than 30 years of experience in the design and implementation of research and evaluation projects for domestic and international economic development and workforce programs.  

Dr. Benus specializes in the design and conduct of impact evaluation projects for governmental organizations, with a special focus on unemployment insurance and other employment and training programs.  Over the course of his career, he has designed and conducted a number of ground breaking, random-assignment, experimental design impact evaluation studies. 

Dr. Benus has implemented projects for a wide variety of U.S. government agencies including the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as for such international organizations as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank.  He has led projects world-wide, including in the Czech Republic, China, South Africa, Honduras, Peru, Jordan, Turkey, Armenia, Romania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.  His international work has primarily focused on the design of new social safety net programs and the evaluation of their cost effectiveness. 

Prior to founding IMPAQ, Dr. Benus served as Project Director at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) and Manager of the International Safety Net Group at Abt Associates Inc., where he directed many important and highly-regarded research and evaluation projects in poverty alleviation, employment and training, privatization, and active labor programs.  

Dr. Benus earned his B.S. in Economics from the University of Maryland and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan.  He has authored numerous papers and reports and has been published in leading professional journals.