SPEAKERS
Our speakers are experts in monetary policy, economics, and politics.
Keynote Speaker
Narayana Kocherlakota
Economist & Lionel W. McKenzie Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester
Narayana Kocherlakota received a PhD in economics from The University of Chicago in 1987. Since that time, he has held academic appointments at a number of institutions, including Stanford University, Northwestern University, The University of Iowa, and the University of Minnesota. He was the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 2009-2015. As part of his responsibilities in that position, he served on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the monetary policymaking arm of the Federal Reserve System.
His past research includes theoretical and empirical contributions to many fields in economics, including the economics of money and payments, business cycles, financial economics, public finance, and dynamic games/contracts. His current research is on monetary policy.
Presenters
Michelle Alexopoulos
Professor of Economics, University of Toronto
Dr. Michelle Alexopoulos is a Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto and a Bank of Canada Fellowship recipient. During her career, she has authored numerous papers in top academic journals in the fields of business cycles, technical change, economic uncertainty, labor markets and productivity.
She has served on the Executive committees of the Canadian Economics Association, the Canadian Women Economists Network, the Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of Economics, the Digital Scholarship Advisory Committee for the Ontario Library Research Cloud and the Canadian Text Archive Centre. She is currently a member of the Productivity Partnership, and is a qualified legal expert in the fields of Technical change, Applied Econometrics and Macroeconomics.
Prof. Alexopoulos’ recent research focuses on creating and analyzing new measures of technical change for economies, based on publications and the patterns of library collections, and developing various measures of economic uncertainty from newspaper articles through textual analysis. Her work seeks to further our understanding of economic fluctuations and knowledge diffusion, identify barriers to knowledge transfers, and help evaluate how various innovations affect the environment, the health and wellbeing of populations, and economic growth within and across countries over time. This research has presented at numerous central banks, international conferences, academic departments, and the National Academy of Sciences, and has been supported by grants from SSHRC, MITACS, CIGI, the Bank of Canada and Industry Partners.
Steve Ambler
Professor of Economics, Université du Québec à Montréal
David Dodge Chair in Monetary Policy, C.D. Howe Institute
Professor Ambler has taught at l’École des sciences de la gestion de l’Université du Québec à Montréal (ESG UQAM) since 1985, and has chaired the Department (2012-2015).Ambler has held visiting positions at the Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne), the European University Institute, the Institut für Höhere Studien in Vienna, and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian central bank).He is the author of numerous articles in journals such as the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking.
He is a past president of the Société canadienne de science économique (1998-1999). He has been an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Economics (1992-1995) and of Canadian Public Policy (1998-2003). He was on secondment to the Bank of Canada as Special Adviser from September 2006 to July 2007. He was Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Economics Association from 2007 to 2012.
Thor Koeppl
Professor of Economics and RBC Fellow, Queen's University
Thorsten V. Koeppl has been at Queen's University for more than 15 years and is currently Scholar in Residence for Financial Services and Monetary Policy at the CD Howe Institute.
He has served as an advisor to the Bank of Canada and several other, policy institutions in matters of financial market organization, regulation and intervention. In 2011, he received the Bank of Canada’s Governors Award for his research on financial market infrastructure.
Born in Regensburg, Germany, he holds degrees in management and in economics from the Universities of Eichstaett/Ingolstadt and Basle, and received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota in 2002.
Douglas Laxton
Adjunct Professor, NOVA School of Business and Economics, Carcavelos, Portugal
Director of Saddle Point Research
Douglas Laxton is a Canadian economist and founder of Saddlepoint Research. He was the Head of the Economic Modeling Division of the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund before he retired from the Fund in October 2018.
Sylvain Leduc
Executive Vice President and Director of Research, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Sylvain Leduc is Executive Vice President and Director of Economic Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. In this role, Leduc oversees the development of key research inputs and analyses to inform the monetary policy decision-making process. Leduc also serves on the Bank’s Executive Committee in charge of strategic direction and policy for the 12th District. Previously, Leduc served as vice president of Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Research and in 2018 as senior vice president and associate director of Economic Research.
In May 2016, Leduc was appointed deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, a position he held until July 2018. In this capacity, he was one of two deputy governors responsible for overseeing the Bank’s analysis and activities in promoting a stable and efficient financial system. As a member of the Bank’s Governing Council, he shared responsibility for decisions with respect to monetary policy and financial system stability and for setting the strategic direction of the Bank.
Leduc also worked as a senior economist in the Division of International Finance at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., and as a senior economist in Macroeconomic Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Born in Montréal, Canada, Leduc earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in economics from McGill University and a PhD in economics from the University of Rochester.
He served as editorial advisor for the Canadian Journal of Economics from 2010 to 2011.
Leduc’s research focus includes monetary policy, business cycles, and international finance.
Luba Petersen
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University
Luba’s research focuses on expectations and decision making in macroeconomic environments. She develops procedures for implementing macroeconomies in controlled laboratory experiments to study policy-relevant questions.
Her recent research investigates the ability of monetary policy and central bank communication to stabilize and guide expectations and markets. She is currently studying the determinants of effective communication to the general public as well as financial markets. Another branch of her work explores how people reason through dynamic optimization problems and whether their ability can be improved through effective tools and education.
These projects have been funded by various institutions and programs including the Bank of Canada, the National Science Foundation, the Sury Initative for Global Finance and International Risk Management, SSHRC-SFU Institutional Grants, as well as SSHRC Insight Development and Insight Grants.
Panelists
David Andolfatto
Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University
Vice President in the Research division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
David Andolfatto is a Senior Vice President in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He was a professor of economics at the University of Waterloo (1991-2000) and Simon Fraser University (2000-2009), before joining the Fed in July 2009. Mr. Andolfatto has published several articles in the profession's leading economic journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, and the Journal of Economic Theory. In 2009, he was awarded the Bank of Canada Fellowship Award for his contributions in the area of money, banking, and monetary policy. Mr. Andolfatto is a native of Vancouver, Canada and received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Western Ontario in 1994.
Diane Bellemare
Senator
Diane Bellemare, Ph.D. in Economics from McGill and M.A. from Western Ontario, was a full professor of economics at UQAM. With both an academic and professional career, she has been a member of the Economic Council of Canada, CEO of the Société Québécoise de Développement de la Main-d'œuvre, President of the Commission des partenaires du marché du travail and Vice-President of the Conseil du patronat du Québec.
She published several books and academic articles on the subjects of full employment, income security, pension and population aging. The last one, Créer et Partager la Prospérité, 2013, was published by the Presses de l’Université du Québec.
She has been a Senator for Quebec since 2012, served as Legislative Coordinator in the Office of the Government Representative in the Senate from 2016 to 2019 and is now a member of the Independent Senators Group.
Kevin Carmichael
Journalist, Financial Post
Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation
Kevin Carmichael is the National Business Columnist at the Financial Post and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
Carmichael has been writing about the Bank of Canada and economics generally since 2000, first for Bloomberg News, then the Globe and Mail, Canadian Business magazine, Maclean’s, FiveThirtyEight, and NBC News Think from Ottawa, Washington, Mumbai, and, currently, Montreal.
Since joining the Post in 2018, he has written extensively about Canadian monetary policy, interviewing the governor and senior deputy governor. Carmichael won gold for commentary at SABEW Canada's 2018 Best in Business awards and was part of the Financial Post team that earned silver in the breaking news category.
David Dodge
Economist & Former Governor of the Bank of Canada and former Deputy Minister of Finance Canada
Dodge served a seven-year term as Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2001 to 2008. In 2008, he joined Bennett Jones LLP, a leading Canadian law firm, as a senior advisor in their Ottawa office. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2007. In 2008, he was elected as incoming chancellor of Queen's University. Dodge co-chairs the Global Market Monitoring Group of the Institute of International Finance, is chairman of the board of directors of the C.D. Howe Institute, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and is a member of the board of directors of Canadian Utilities Limited.
Previously, he was Assistant Professor of Economics at Queen's University, Associate Professor of Canadian Studies and International Economics at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of British Columbia, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Economics at Simon Fraser University. He has also served as Director of the International Economics Program of the Institute for Research on Public Policy.
He was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance in 1992. In the 1996 book Double Vision, by Edward Greenspon and Anthony Wilson-Smith, the authors describe in detail the role which Dodge played in reviving Canada's economy by working closely with Finance Minister Paul Martin to eliminate the federal budget's deficit spending.
While Deputy Minister of Health from 1998, Dodge's role in founding the Winnipeg National Microbiology Laboratory was commended as critically important by laboratory director-general Frank Plummer.
Angela Redish
Professor of Economics, Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia
Angela received her PhD from the University of Western Ontario and has been a Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Arts at UBC since then. Her teaching and research have focused on the history of monetary and banking systems in Europe and North America. In 2000-2001, she served as Special Advisor at the Bank of Canada.
From 2001 to 2006 she was Head of the Department of Economics. From 2012 to 2015 she was Vice Provost and AVP at UBC and from 2015 to July 2017 she served as UBC’s Provost and Vice President Academic pro tem. She is the immediate Past President of the Canadian Economics Association.
Discussants
Edda Claus
Associate Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University
Director, Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis
Prior to joining Laurier, Edda Claus was a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne's Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. She was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Finance at Trinity College, Dublin, an
d a visiting PhD Scholar at Cambridge University (UK). She has also worked as an Economist with the Australian Commonwealth Treasury and the Canadian Department of Finance. Claus is a Research Associate with the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis at the Australian National University and an Associate Editor with the Journal of Economic Surveys.
Michael Devereux
Professor, Vancouver School of Economics
Michael Devereux's main area of interest is in International Macroeconomics and International Finance. Currently, his research focuses on the exchange rate determination, the link between exchange rates and prices, and international aspects of monetary and fiscal policy. He has also worked on international financial linkages and their role in the global financial crisis.
Jean-François Rouillard
Associate Professor, Université de Sherbrooke
Jean-François Rouillard has been at the Université de Sherbrooke since 2012. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Queen's University and his Master's degree also in Economics from the Université de Montréal. His research interests include business cycles, international macroeconomics, and monetary policy. His research is funded by SSHRC Insight Development.
Nicholas Rowe
Retired Professor, Carleton University
Nicholas Rowe taught economics at Carleton University for 37 years. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Western Ontario, and was previously a member of the C.D. Howe Institute's Monetary Policy Council and the Centre for Monetary and Financial Economics. A contributor to numerous volumes, Professor Rowe's articles have appeared in such scholarly journals as the Journal of International Money and Finance and Canadian Journal of Economics.
William B.P. Robson
President and Chief Executive Officer, C.D. Howe Institute
Bill Robson took office as President and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute in July 2006, after serving as the Institute’s Senior Vice President since 2003 and Director of Research since 2000. He has written more than 240 monographs, articles, chapters and books on such subjects as government budgets, pensions, healthcare financing, inflation and currency issues. His work has won awards from the Policy Research Secretariat, the Canadian Economics Association, and the Donner Canadian Foundation. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and holds an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is a member of the Panel of Senior Advisors to the Auditor General of Ontario and the Ifo World Economic Survey expert group, and a regular commentator on BNN/Bloomberg. Bill taught undergraduate public finance and public policy at the University of Toronto from 2000 to 2003, and a Master’s level course in public finance at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy from 2014 to 2019.
Franciso Ruge-Murcia
Professor, Department of Economics, McGill University
Francisco Ruge-Murcia is Professor of Economics at McGill University and Fellow of the Bank of Canada. He currently serves as Deputy Vice-President of the Canadian Economics Association and as Chair of the Department of Economics at McGill. He was Managing Editor of the Canadian Journal of Economics from 2013 to 2018 and has been Associate Editor of Macroeconomic Dynamics since 2010. Prof. Ruge-Murcia has previously held appointments at the University of Cambridge and the University of Montreal, and visiting positions at the University of California at San Diego, Tel Aviv University, Korea University, Universidad de los Andes, the International Monetary Fund, and several central banks, most recently at the Bank of France and the Bank of Finland. . His research focuses on issues in monetary economics and collective decision-making, and on econometric methods for the estimation of dynamic equilibrium models. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia.
Speakers
Stephen Gordon
Professor of Economics, Université Laval
Stephen Gordon received his PhD in economics from the University of Toronto in 1990 and has been a professor of economics at Université Laval since 1992. His research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including the Canadian Journal of Economics, the American Economic Review and Social Choice and Welfare. In 2005, he started the economics blog Worthwhile Canadian Initiative. He has written extensively for the Globe and Mail, Maclean's and for the National Post, where he has had a weekly column since 2015.
Andrew Potter
Associate Professor, Max Bell School of Public Policy
Andrew is former editor in chief of the Ottawa Citizen and public affairs columnist for Maclean's Magazine. He is author of The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves, and the co-author, with Joseph Heath, of the best-selling book The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can't be Jammed.
Chris Ragan
Economics professor and Director, Max Bell School of Public Policy; Chair of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission
Chris was a member of Finance Minister’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth, former Special Advisor to the Governor of the Bank of Canada, and also former Clifford Clark Visiting Economist at Finance Canada.
