Mehrnaz is an economist with expertise in applied economics including the economic evaluation and data analysis. Her expertise crosses a range of industries including land use, land transport, transport and land use integration, natural resources and waste. Mehrnaz’s particular interest is in the monetisation of intangible outcomes using non-market valuation techniques.

She has local and central governments background with extensive experience in cost-benefit analysis. Prior to joining Sapere, Mehrnaz held a principal role leading the update of the New Zealand Transport Agency’s (NZTA) Monetised Benefits and Costs Manual.

As a member of NZTA’s Investment Assurance team, Mehrnaz provided technical leadership in relation to economic analysis and other guidance on rules and procedures relating to the effectiveness and efficiency of transport programmes and projects. Mehrnaz innovated and led multiple products of the agency’s recent review of its Investment Decision Making Framework (IDMF) including:

• development of a new benefits framework for Waka Kotahi which has been used as the foundation of other IDMF review’s products.
• initiated the research on the database of values for non-monetised benefits included in NZTA’s benefits framework. Mehrnaz was also an active member of this research’s steering group.
• an external commission to establish a potential interim social cost of carbon based on international literature, as there is not yet a New Zealand based methodology to estimate the social cost of carbon. This work was used as the basis of the whole of government agreed shadow price of carbon that is included in the Treasury’s CBAx tool and the MBCM.

In her local government experience, as part of the research and evaluation unit within the Auckland Council for over seven years, Mehrnaz contributed to providing robust evidence for Auckland Council’s decision-makers through research and evaluation. She has developed, implemented and overseen primary and secondary research and evaluation on a range of economic issues. She has also used her experience and insight in resource economics, applied behavioural economics and a range of economic and social evaluation methods and tools (e.g. Cost-Benefit Analysis, Social Return on Investment and Hedonic price method).