In this role, he provides support on quantitative methods for program evaluation and methodology.

Prior to joining NORC, Scherpf was an economist at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) where he evaluated issues surrounding domestic food assistance programs. While at ERS, he contributed to the growth of the USDA-ERS-Census administrative data platform—a cross-agency effort to acquire state administrative records from food assistance programs—by developing the prototype data product that state agencies would receive upon sharing their administrative records with the Census Bureau. He has worked extensively with state administrative records from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). His research has used SNAP administrative records linked to household survey data to assess program benefit incidence, the effect of labor market conditions on program participation, and program misreporting in household surveys. Scherpf has extensive experience modeling SNAP eligibility in household surveys. He has also investigated the effect of local labor markets on SNAP caseloads used spatial econometric techniques.

Scherpf is also a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University Advanced Academic Programs in Washington, D.C., where he teaches a masters-level course in econometrics.