Charles River Associates Announces Contract to Develop Tax Policy Simulation Software for the State of New Hampshire.

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 10, 2000

State-of-the-Art Software Presents a Significant Growth Opportunity

for CRA 

Charles River Associates Incorporated (CRA) (NASDAQ: CRAI), a leading provider of economic, financial, and business strategy consulting, today announced its contract with the state of New Hampshire to develop a full set of advanced simulation models designed to forecast tax revenues and analyze changes in tax policy. These tools, built on a state-of-the-art software platform, will be used to analyze changes in New Hampshire's tax structure and project revenues from sales, property, and income taxes. This will allow the state to better plan expenditures by projecting cash flow from all tax sources.

"This project represents a significant opportunity for CRA to move into an exciting new area of business," stated James C. Burrows, president and chief executive officer of CRA. "The state of New Hampshire needed better analysis tools in order to resolve its ongoing tax policy issues. CRA's software engineering capabilities, coupled with our expert tax analysis and macroeconomic modeling capabilities, allowed us to design and implement an application ideally suited for the specific needs of the state.

"Once complete, CRA will deliver a cutting-edge tax-modeling solution," Burrows stated. "We are confident that we can build a business around this solution, enabling us to offer additional state and local government clients the best tax analysis tool on the market. This is a prime example of CRA's effort to expand into additional practice areas that complement our core competencies, thereby creating increased value for our shareholders."

Working with the New Hampshire Office of Legislative Budget Assistant and the Department of Revenue Administration, CRA is developing an entirely new suite of customized software that will bring tax simulation modeling to a new level of sophistication. These models will cover New Hampshire's entire tax structure, allowing the state to produce revenue estimates, receipts forecasts, and distributional analyses of tax proposals relating to options for individual income, sales, business, and property taxes. All of the tax modules of the system will be fully integrated, and will be driven by a macroeconomic model of the state of New Hampshire that is also being delivered by CRA.

Founded in 1965, CRA is a leading provider of sophisticated economic and financial consulting services, expert testimony and litigation support, and business consulting. The firm's areas of expertise include auctions, antitrust, mergers and acquisitions, policy impact assessments, corporate finance, strategy and business operations, and regulatory economics. CRA has advised legal and corporate clients, government agencies, and other organizations in thousands of engagements. CRA has offices in Los Angeles, Mexico, Palo Alto, Berkeley/Oakland, Washington, DC, and Toronto, as well as its corporate headquarters in Boston. More information about the Company can be found on its Web site at www.crai.com.

Statements in this press release concerning CRA's ability to expand into new practice areas are "forward-looking" statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties. Information contained in these forward-looking statements is inherently uncertain, and actual performance and results may differ materially. Further information on factors that could affect the Company's financial results is included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.