Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Douglas Thomas (Fed)
Research Economist
Douglas S. Thomas is an economist in the Applied Economics Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). His research focuses on the economics of U.S. manufacturing, including manufacturing competitiveness, investment decision-making, industry costs and risks, supply chains, and the economic effects of manufacturing technologies and practices.
Thomas develops economic measures, analytical methods, models, and software tools to help manufacturers, industry organizations, and policymakers understand economic opportunities and risks and evaluate investments that can improve manufacturing performance and competitiveness. His work draws on input-output analysis, econometrics, surveys, and computational modeling and has addressed topics including manufacturing industry costs, supply-chain disruption, additive manufacturing, digital twins, sustainable manufacturing, and the U.S. manufacturing economy.
His research has resulted in publications, analytical frameworks, datasets, and software tools used to examine manufacturing costs, investment decisions, supply chains, and competitiveness. He is the author of NIST's annual reports on the U.S. Manufacturing Economy and the 2026 A Framework for Economic Decision Making in Advancing Manufacturing Industry Competitiveness. Earlier in his NIST career, Thomas also conducted research on the economics of fire.
Selected Manufacturing Economics Research and Tools:
