Erik Durbin

Erik Durbin is the PCAOB’s Acting Chief Economist and Director of its Office of Economic and Risk Analysis (OERA). In this role, Dr. Durbin is responsible for advising and assisting the Board by conducting independent, evidence-based economic and risk analyses to inform its oversight activities, including inspections, investigations, rulemaking, standard setting, and post-implementation reviews.

Before being named Acting Chief Economist and OERA Director in December 2025, Dr. Durbin served as OERA’s Deputy Chief Economist, Economic Analysis. In that position, he was responsible for the process and teams that develop the economic analysis for standard-setting and rulemaking projects and for the post-implementation review of their effectiveness. He also assisted the PCAOB Chief Economist in conducting economic analyses for the Chair and the Board.

Prior to joining the PCAOB, Dr. Durbin served as Section Chief, Consumer and Household Research and Policy, in the Office of Research at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He served as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers, from 2007 to 2009, and has worked as an economist at the Federal Trade Commission, as an assistant professor of economics at the Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis, and as an attorney in private practice.

Dr. Durbin earned a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center.