fbpx

Media Releases

Marcel Boyer named vice-president of the Montreal Economic Institute

Montreal, January 29, 2007 – Paul Daniel Muller, president of the Montreal Economic Institute, is pleased to announce the appointment of Marcel Boyer as vice-president and chief economist. Mr. Boyer is one of Canada’s best known economists and is among the 5% of economists most recognized worldwide, based on a December 2006 survey from Research Papers in Economics. This same ranking places him first in Quebec and ninth in Canada.

Mr. Muller is delighted that “so accomplished a researcher is joining us, strengthening the Institute’s ability to engage in economic analysis and public policy debate.” Mr. Boyer said he is “happy to be joining a dynamic organization that will give me the means to contribute more intensively to discussions on ways of making Quebec more prosperous.”

The Institute also has the pleasure of welcoming Robert Gagné, director of the Institute of Applied Economics at HEC Montréal, and Mathieu Laberge, professor of economics at Gérald-Godin College, to its team of associate researchers.

An outstanding career

Marcel Boyer holds a Ph.D. in economics from Carnegie Mellon University and has taught since 1974 at the economics department of the University of Montreal, where he currently occupies the Bell Canada Chair in industrial economics. He is also a fellow of the Center for Interuniversity Research and Analysis on Organizations (CIRANO) and sits on the board of the Quebec agency for public-private partnerships.

Mr. Boyer is the recipient of numerous scientific distinctions. In 2002, he obtained the Marcel Vincent Prize awarded by the Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS) for the exceptional quality of his work in social science. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada and has served as president of the Canadian Economics Association and of the Société canadienne de science économique. He has also been chairman of the Réseau de calcul et de modélisation mathématique and a board member of the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States, the National Statistics Council of Canada, and many other research organizations in Canada.

From June 1998 to December 2002, he was CIRANO’s president and CEO. He had previously been vice president and scientific director of CIRANO from 1993 to 1998 and holder of the Jarislowsky-CRSH-CRSNG Chair in Technology and International Competition at the École Polytechnique de Montréal from 1993 to 2000.

A specialist in the operation of markets

Mr. Boyer has published more than 200 articles, reports and working papers and has given more than 260 lectures and seminars, including many on the operation of markets. He has served as an economic expert with many large companies and a number of government bodies, both in Canada and abroad. His research topics include:

  • competition policy;
  • public-private partnerships;
  • cost sharing and price setting for common infrastructure;
  • reform of municipal institutions;
  • deregulation;
  • university financing and performance assessment;
  • development policies;
  • wage negotiations.

Two new Associate Researchers

Robert Gagné, head of the Institute of Applied Economics at HEC Montréal, becomes an associate researcher with the Montreal Economic Institute. Professor Gagné is a specialist in applied microeconomics and econometrics. His areas of research mostly involve analysis of technical progress and productivity growth, insurance fraud, and tax policy. He is a research fellow at the CIRANO and is also the author of a number of articles published in some of the profession’s top scientific journals, in particular the Journal of Econometrics and the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics. He has served as an adviser in several matters related to transport policy in Quebec and has been called as an expert witness in cases concerning the regulation of energy markets in Quebec. He recently co-chaired the consultative committee on fiscal imbalance of the Council of the Federation.

Mathieu Laberge, currently professor of economics at Gérald-Godin College, also joins the Institute as an associate researcher. He holds a master’s degree in international economics and econometrics from the University of Nottingham and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Montreal. He has been working with various economic research centres. His research interests include education economics, management of public fixed assets, public finance, and the economics of social behaviour.

The Montreal Economic Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit body that takes part in public policy debate in Quebec and across Canada, offering wealth creation solutions on matters of taxation, regulation, and reform of health and education systems. Its publications since 2000 have included the Report Card on Quebec’s Secondary Schools. In 2004, it won a Templeton Freedom Award for Institute Excellence for the quality of its management and public relations.

– 30 –

Information and interview requests: André Valiquette, Director of Communications, Montreal Economic Institute, Tel.: 514 273-0969 (office) / 514 574-0969 (cell) / E-mail: avaliquette@iedm.org

Back to top