Ralph Rector directs the research and development activities of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis (CDA).

As a Heritage Senior Research Fellow and the center's project manager, Rector has managed projects involving the use of large-scale relational databases and economic models. One of his ongoing projects is developing and maintaining a microsimulation model that is used to analyze federal individual income taxes based on a representative sample of taxpayers. It has also been used in conjunction with the CDA's macroeconomic models to produce dynamic revenue calculations and to estimate the economy-wide impacts of proposed tax law changes.

In addition to publishing output from the model in Heritage papers, methodological information about the model and summaries of the estimates have appeared in the IRS Research Bulletin and Tax Notes.

Rector has testified before Congress on statistical matters and participated in programs administered by the National Academy Committee on National Statistics. Rector serves as a member of the Consultants Panel for the Statistics of Income Division of the Internal Revenue Service. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Council of Professional Associations for Federal Statistics (COPAFS) and the Association of Public Data Users (APDU).

Before joining Heritage in 1998, Rector worked in the Tax Policy Economics Group at Coopers & Lybrand, LLP, where he supervised the construction of simulation models used to analyze the impact of tax reform on businesses and individuals. He also worked as an economic analyst at the Congressional Budget Office and a state revenue agency.

Rector received a doctorate in economics from George Mason University in 1994. He also has a master's degree in economics from George Mason (1990) and a bachelor's degree in economics from Oklahoma State University (1979).