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Associate Researchers

Vernon L. Smith

Honorary Senior Fellow

Vernon L. Smith was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for his groundbreaking work in experimental economics. His recent contributions to this field include the discovery of specialization and exchange in a virtual village environment. In particular, how groups might discover self enforcing property rights and achieve trade to support wealth creation. Mr. Smith is currently Professor of Business Economics and Law at Chapman University in Orange (CA). He was formerly a professor of economics and law at George Mason University, and a board member of the Mercatus Center. He received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Cal Tech, and his PhD in Economics from Harvard. He has authored or co-authored over 200 articles and books on capital theory, finance, natural resource economics and experimental economics. Mr. Smith has served as a consultant on the privatization of electric power in Australia and New Zealand and participated in numerous private and public discussions of energy deregulation in the United States.

Etienne Bernier

Associate Researcher

Etienne Bernier, Jr. Eng., M. Sc., is a Chemical Engineering Ph. D. student at École Polytechnique de Montreal, with awards from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council and the Fonds de recherche sur la nature et les technologies. He has joined the Interuniversity Research Centre for the Life Cycle of Products, Processes and Services (CIRAIG) in 2005. He holds a master’s degree in Physics from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from Polytechnique. His main study interests are energy systems efficiency and the relationship between thermodynamics and the environment.

Marcel Boyer

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Marcel Boyer holds a PhD in economics from Carnegie Mellon University and is currently Professor Emeritus of economics at the University of Montreal. He has been accumulating awards since the beginning of his career. Among others, he has received the Alexander-Henderson Award (Carnegie Mellon University 1971), the Prix Marcel-Dagenais (Société canadienne de science économique 1985), and was elected in 1992 to the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of the Arts, Sciences and Humanities of Canada). Mr. Boyer, who was Vice President and Chief Economist at the MEI between 2006 and 2009, also received the Prix Marcel-Vincent (ACFAS 2002), the Prix Léon-Gérin for excellence in his career in the social sciences and humanities (Prix du Québec 2015), was named in 2013 an Honorary Member of the Canadian Economics Association (the first Quebecer to receive this honour), and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada on December 30, 2015.

Reuven Brenner

Senior Fellow

Reuven Brenner worked with Bank of America, Knowledge Universe, Bell Canada, with investors in Canada, the US and has been involved in the private equity markets as partner in Match Strategic Partners. He has pursued entrepreneurial ventures and has been serving on company boards, and was also expert witness in cases covering financial, anti-trust and bankruptcy matters. Brenner also testified before US Congressional Commissions and Canada’s Senate’s Banking and Finance Committee He holds the Repap Chair at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management since 1991, and is on the Board of McGill’s Pension Fund. He authored books published by University of Chicago, Cambridge University Press and Presses Universitaires de France. His articles appeared in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Post, Asia Times, Le Figaro and The Financial Times. Forbes dedicated a cover story to his works and endeavors, received the Killam Award, and is elected fellow of the Royal Society.

Kevin Brookes

Associate Researcher

Kevin Brookes holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Political Science from the Grenoble Institute of Political Studies. He has collaborated with a number of think tanks, and has taught at several universities in France (including the Lyon and Grenoble Institutes of Political Studies). He is a PhD candidate at the University of Grenoble Alpes and has published articles and book reviews on the history of political thought in academic journals such as Raisons politiques, the Revue française de science politique and The Journal of the History of Ideas. He specializes in the analysis of public choice and of political institutions. He was a Public Policy Analyst at the MEI from November 2017 to December 2018.

Gaël Campan

Senior Fellow

Gaël Campan has been teaching economics for almost twenty-five years. He holds a DEA with Honours from the Faculty of Applied Economics in Aix-en-Provence, France, and pursued his doctoral studies in Paris (Panthéon-Assas), during which his thesis project was recognized by the Department of Economics and Finance. He worked for several years in strategic and organizational advising and managed companies in Africa and Asia. An international speaker, he has published in academic journals and contributed opinion pieces to economic and financial newspapers. His 2016 handbook of political economy, Théorie Générale de l’Interaction, was an Amazon bestseller. He lived in Cambodia for ten years, where he was Associate Professor at the Royal University of Law and Economics and the National University of Management. He was a Senior Economist at the MEI from January 2020 to January 2021.

Sylvain Charlebois

Associate Researcher

Sylvain Charlebois is associate professor of marketing and Associate Dean of the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan. He teaches strategic and international marketing at the graduate level at the Faculty of Business Administration of the University of Regina. Mr. Charlebois was named 2007, 2008 and 2009 professor of the year there, and in 2006 Maclean’s magazine recognized him as one of the best professors at his university. He has written numerous scientific articles published in Canada and abroad. Originally from Quebec, he holds a doctorate in marketing, magna cum laude, from the University of Sherbrooke. His area of expertise covers agricultural policy in particular.

J. Edwin Coffey MD

Associate Researcher

After a busy career in Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Montreal General and Royal Victoria Hospitals in Montreal, and as Associate Professor at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine, Dr J. Edwin Coffey has recently exchanged his scalpel for the pen. A graduate in Arts from Mount Allison and in Medicine from McGill, he took his speciality training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He has had a longstanding interest in political, economic and legal philosophy and has been an influential leader in the councils of Quebec and Canadian Medicine. He is a former President of the Quebec Medical Association and has served on the Board of the Canadian Medical Association and its Working Group on Health Care Financing in Canada.

Wendell Cox

Associate Researcher

Wendell Cox is principal of Wendell Cox Consultancy, an international public policy firm. He has provided consulting assistance to the United States Department of Transportation and several public transit authorities in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Cox was appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley to three terms on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. He was elected chairman of the American Public Transit Association Planning and Policy Committee (comprised of transit planning department officials) and the American Public Transit Association Governing Boards Committee (comprised of transit board members). More recently, Mr. Cox served three years as the Director of Public Policy of the American Legislative Exchange Council, where he oversaw the development of state model legislation and policy reports. In 1999, he was appointed to the Amtrak Reform Council by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, to fill the unexpired term of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman. Mr. Cox is a senior fellow of The Heartland Institute and a visiting professor at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers in Paris.

Adam Daifallah

Associate Researcher

Adam Daifallah is a Senior Managing Director of Teneo, the global CEO advisory firm, with responsibility for Teneo’s Montreal office. He was Co-Founder and Managing Partner of HATLEY Strategy Advisors, a Montreal-based public affairs firm, from 2010 until 2020, when HATLEY was acquired by Teneo.

Prior to HATLEY, Adam practised law at the Montreal office of Norton Rose Fulbright (then Ogilvy Renault), sat on the editorial board of the National Post in Toronto, and was a Washington, D.C. correspondent of The New York Sun. He is co-author of two books on Canadian politics.

In the voluntary sector, Adam is Vice President of Golf Canada, where he chairs the Compensation Committee. He is a director of Dunham House and a member of the Management Committee of the Mount Royal Club. He has previously served as Chairman of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and of SecondStreet.org and as a director of the Fondation du CHUM (University of Montreal Hospital Foundation), the Montreal Cancer Institute, the Schmeelk Canada Foundation, the Naval Museum of Quebec, and other organizations. He is also a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Adam is a law graduate of Université Laval, has a BA (honours) in history and political studies from Queen’s University and was a Sauvé Scholar at McGill University. He is a member of the Quebec Bar.

Jason Dean

Associate Researcher

Jason Dean is an Assistant Professor of Economics at King’s University College at Western Ontario. He is an applied economist with academic publications in areas such immigration, housing, economic history, and health economics. He has over ten years experience teaching economics at various Canadian institutions, and at universities in China. He completed a BBA at Wilfrid Laurier University, an MA in Economics from the University of Guelph, and a PhD in Economics from McGill University.

Pierre Desrochers

Associate Researcher

Pierre Desrochers holds a PhD in geography from the University of Montreal. His main areas of interest are economic development, and environmental, urban, and agricultural policy. He has published some fifty academic articles and over 200 economic columns. He is the co-author of The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet and of Population Bombed! Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Change. He was awarded many scholarships and academic prizes for the quality of his research on sustainable development, including the Julian L. Simon Memorial Award of Competitive Enterprise Institute. He now teaches at the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment (see his website here). Pierre Desrochers was the Montreal Economic Institute’s Research Director from September 2001 to July 2003.

Claude A. Garcia

Associate Researcher

After studying at Laval University and at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Claude Garcia joined the Department of Social Affairs in 1969, where he remained until 1978, when he was assistant deputy minister in charge of planning. He was a partner at Hébert, LeHouillier and Associates, actuaries-consultants, from 1978 to 1982. In 1983, he began working at Standard Life Insurance as principal vice president and actuary, and served as president of Canadian operations from 1993 to 2004. He was also a member of the board of directors there from 2000 to 2004. Since then, in addition to sitting on the boards of Cogeco, Cogeco Cable, Goodfellow, BTB Real Estate Investment Trust, and L’Excellence Life Insurance, he serves as a director on the boards of the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal and of the Ombudservice for Life and Health Insurance.

Jerome Gessaroli

Senior Fellow

Jerome Gessaroli teaches at the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s School of Business, courses in corporate finance, security analysis, and advanced finance. He has also been a visiting lecturer at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, teaching finance in their undergraduate and executive MBA programs.

Jerome is the lead Canadian co-author of 4 editions of the finance textbook, Financial Management Theory and Practice. He holds a BA in Political Science and an MBA from the Sauder School of Business, both from the University of British Columbia. Prior to teaching, he worked in the securities industry. Jerome also has international business experience, having worked for one of Canada’s largest industrial R&D companies, developing overseas business opportunities in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and India. He has appeared in several Canadian media outlets, and has written for a variety of policy organizations and think tanks.

F. Pierre Gingras

Associate Researcher

F. Pierre Gingras is a specialist in industrial engineering. He worked for 31 years in the construction of hydroelectric projects, including 17 as division manager for the planning and estimation of major projects. He was therefore intimately involved in the Manicouagan, Aux Outardes and James Bay complexes, in addition to his contributions to the refurbishment of many other works. He also directed evaluation and concept studies for a multitude of other projects. Since his retirement in 1997, Mr. Gingras has remained active in the field and contributed to studies for over 50 projects with various consultants, developers and Aboriginal councils. Collaborating with various experts, he sometimes takes part in the presentation of briefs submitted to the provincial government’s public hearings office on the environment, the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE). (High resolution photograph)

Pierre Girardin

Associate Researcher

After studying actuarial science at Laval University, Pierre Girardin joined the Quebec public service where he worked for ten years as an actuary for the SAAQ and the CSST. During this period, he was also employed by the RRQ, where he participated in the drafting of the Supplemental Pension Plans Act. He then worked as a consulting actuary for over fifteen years, notably for Towers Perrin where he was a partner, before creating his own consulting actuary services company. He was a member of the board of directors of the CSST as an employer’s representative and he was a privileged consultant for the Quebec Council of Employers (CPQ) on questions related to CSST pricing and pension plan legislation. Mr. Girardin is also very much involved in community projects. He is among other things president of Cuisines de l’Amitié, an organization that distributes meals and organizes collective kitchens. Mr. Girardin is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

David Gratzer, M.D.

Senior Fellow

Dr. David Gratzer is a physician and writer. His book Code Blue: Reviving Canada’s Health Care System (1999), a national bestseller, won the Donner Prize for best Canadian public-policy book. He is the editor of Better Medicine: Reforming Canadian Health Care (2002) and the author of The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care (2006), with a Foreword by Milton Friedman. He has served as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute of Public Policy in New York for nine years. Dr. Gratzer has been interviewed by CTV, CBC, TVO, and FOX. He is a blogger with Huffington Post Canada, and his articles have appeared in the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen and The Wall Street Journal.

Brett House

Associate Researcher

Brett House is a Senior Fellow at the Jeanne Sauvé Foundation in Montréal, a Visiting Scholar at Massey College at the University of Toronto, and an Advisor to Tau Investment Management, an impact fund. He recently completed projects as a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and as a Chazen Visiting Scholar at Columbia Business School. A macroeconomist, Brett held previous roles across markets, policymaking and academia with Woodbine Capital Advisors, a NY-based global macro fund; the Executive Office of the United Nations’ Secretary-General; the UNDP; The Earth Institute at Columbia University; the International Monetary Fund; Oxford University (Keble College); the World Bank; the University of Cape Town; and Goldman Sachs. Brett pursued graduate studies in economics at Oxford and Cape Town as a Rhodes and Rotary Scholar. He received the 2014 Québec Notable Award in Finance and was named a 2010 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He tweets on @BrettEHouse.

Ian Irvine

Associate Researcher

Ian Irvine has been professor of economics at Concordia University since 1978. Mr. Irvine has published studies on public finance, taxation, health economics, income inequality, Canadian employment insurance and social assistance programs, and crime. He holds a doctorate from the University of Western Ontario and has been a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, the University of Sydney, the University of Colorado, and at University College and the Economic and Research Institute in Dublin. (High resolution photo)

Pierre J. Jeanniot, O.C., C.Q., B.Sc., LL.D, D.Sc.

Associate Researcher

Having held various senior positions at Air Canada, Pierre Jeanniot was President and CEO from 1984-1990. He directed its privatization and led the newly privatized airline as its first CEO. He was subsequently appointed Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 1993 and was granted the lifetime title of Director General Emeritus in recognition of his outstanding contribution to international civil aviation in 2002. Pierre Jeanniot is currently Chairman of Thales Canada Inc., a subsidiary of the international “Groupe Thales.” He is also President of Jinmag Inc., a consulting and investment company which provides advice to governments, civil aviation authorities, airlines and other aviation-related companies. He serves on a number of Boards including subsidiaries of Scotia Bank, SECOR Consulting, and diverse aviation-related companies, and is Chancellor of the University of Québec in Montreal (UQAM). Awards received: Officer of the Order of Canada, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (France); the Independence Medal of the First Order (Jordan); Commander of l’Ordre du Québec; Doctorate Honoris Causa, University of Québec; Honorary Doctorate of International Law, Concordia University; and Management Achievement Award, Faculty of Management, and Doctorate of Science, Honoris Causa, McGill University.

Matthew Lau

Fellow

Matthew Lau is an economics writer in Toronto, Canada. He appears regularly in the opinion page of the Financial Post, where he has written on fiscal policy, climate change, and employment regulations, as well as lighter topics such as the economics of restaurant tipping. His writing has also been published in the Toronto Sun and other publications across Canada. Matthew is co-author of a Fraser Institute book on fiscal policy titled End of the Chretien Consensus? He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, with a specialization in finance and economics, from the University of Toronto.

Pierre Lemieux

Senior Fellow

Pierre Lemieux is an economist who has published many books on economic and political issues. In addition to his many academic articles (including the article on property rights he coauthored in the Dictionnaire des sciences économiques of the Presses Universitaires de France), he has signed several articles in the international financial press and has also chaired several international academic seminars. He holds a M.A. in philosophy from the Université de Sherbrooke and a M.A. in economics from the University of Toronto. He is affiliated with the Department of Management Sciences of the Université du Québec en Outaouais.

Marie-Josée Loiselle

Associate Economist

Marie-Josée Loiselle holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Université de Montréal and a master’s degree in public administration from ÉNAP. Prior to founding her own firm, Nuno ID, in 2003, she worked for Montréal International in attracting foreign investments and was responsible for the IT sector in the US before moving on to become Director Business Development – Northern Europe. Ms. Loiselle began her career in foreign investments at the MUC Economic Development Office before joining ConjuChem, a California-based biotechnology company that set up operations in Montreal. Today, she helps organizations and businesses understand and exploit business cycle changes in light of Austrian school economic theory. She is frequently asked to comment on various economic issues in the media and writes a column for Canadian Money Saver magazine.

Nicolas Marques

Associate Researcher

Nicolas Marques is Managing Director of the Institut économique Molinari (IEM). Holding a doctorate in economics (Université d’Aix-Marseille) and a diploma in management (EM Lyon), he began his career teaching economics before taking on marketing and commercial responsibilities at large French asset management groups. An Associate Researcher since the IEM was established in 2004, he became its Managing Director in 2019. He is the author of several works on tax issues, public finance, social security and the contribution of business. His writings appear frequently in La Tribune and Capital.

Alexandre Massaux

Associate Researcher

Alexandre Massaux holds a PhD in Law from the University of Toulon in France. He also holds a master’s degree in Business Administration. He also collaborates with various think tanks like IREF Europe and the web magazine Contrepoints by commenting on and analyzing international current events. He was a research scholar at the CEVRO Institute in Prague in 2018. His main areas of interest are international relations, trade, and governance.

Mark Milke

Senior Fellow

Mark Milke, Ph.D. is a political scientist, policy analyst, author and columnist with six books and dozens of studies. His newest book is The Victim Cult: How the culture of blame hurts everyone and wrecks civilizations. His work has been published by policy institutes in Canada, the United States and Europe. Mark’s policy work has touched on everything from taxes, civil rights, and private property to airline competition, insurance, aboriginal policy, government monopolies and the folly of corporate welfare. In 2018 and 2019, he was the principal policy advisor to then Alberta opposition leader Jason Kenney, and lead “architect” of the 2019 platform for the United Conservative party.

Mark’s columns appear in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Maclean’s, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun and Winnipeg Free Press, among others. He has a Ph.D. in International Relations and Political Philosophy from University of Calgary. Mark is President of the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Calgary, the past-president of Civitas—a Society for Ideas, a past chairman of the editorial board of Canada’s Journal of Ideas C2C Journal, and a past lecturer in Political Science at the University of Calgary.

Mohamed Moutii

Associate Researcher

Mohamed Moutii is a research associate with the Arab Center for Research and a research fellow at the Institute for Research in Economic and Fiscal Issues (IREFeurope), where he analyzes economic policies and their impact on society. In addition, he is Co-founder and Senior Managing Editor of Wonderlustmag, a project that works to defend the ideals and principles of freedom and provides an ever-growing source of knowledge, including essays and articles on the free market, liberty, private property, and the ethics of peace and non-aggression.

Youcef Msaid

Associate Researcher

Youcef Msaid holds a master’s degree in economics from Cornell University, with specializations in behavioural economics and industrial organization. Since 2008, he has taught economics in several schools including Cégep Garneau, Cornell University, and HEC Montréal. He was a research assistant at Cornell University from 2010 to 2013. Since then, he has been working as a consultant regarding the use of experimental methods and the analysis of big data in business.

Andrew Pickford

Associate Researcher

Andrew Pickford works in strategy, economic analysis, and energy with organizations in Australia and North America. He has particular expertise with natural gas markets, electricity utilities, industry-driven applied research, and the reform and transformation of businesses and governments during periods of turbulence. Andrew works with decision makers in corporate, government, academic, and civil society settings. From his initial training at KPMG in internal audit and risk management, he has been fortunate to work with some of the world’s most distinguished strategists and experienced company directors. This background and experience has allowed him to produce insights and advice which are easily understood and actioned by directors, government ministers, and CEOs, while maintaining a deep approach to rigorous analysis. Andrew is currently completing a PhD on energy history at the University of Western Australia.

Michel Poitevin

Senior Fellow

Michel Poitevin is a professor in the Department of Economics at the Université de Montréal, where he was also the head of the department from 2002 to 2015. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of British Columbia and he specializes in the economics of information, incentives, and public policy. Michel Poitevin has carried out research on determining the optimal level of tuition fees for Quebec universities and on optimal taxation in the presence of public goods in the context of fiscal competition between states or regions, and he is interested in a range of topics related to public policy. His academic articles have appeared in Econometrica, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Public Economics, Rand Journal of Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, and Games and Economic Behaviour, among others. He was Managing Editor of the Canadian Journal of Economics from 2001 to 2005. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Institut de finance mathématique de Montréal (IFM2) between 2010 and 2014. In addition to being a Senior Fellow at the Montreal Economic Institute, he has been a CIRANO researcher since 1994 and a CIREQ researcher since 2002.

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Francis Pouliot

Associate Researcher

Francis Pouliot is the CEO of Satoshi Portal, a blockchain-based fintech start-up specializing in digital currency exchange and payments. Director at the Bitcoin Embassy and the Bitcoin Foundation, Francis is one of Canada’s leading advocates for blockchain technology and a passionate researcher in the fields of crypto-economics and financial technology. He advises numerous companies and public institutions and is an internationally recognized Bitcoin educator and thought leader. Francis is a former public policy analyst at the Montreal Economic Institute. He holds a master’s degree with distinction in public policy from King’s College London and a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the Université de Montréal.

Frederik Cyrus Roeder

Associate Researcher

Frederik Roeder is a German health economist. He studied hospital management, health economics and international business at the universities of Goettingen (Germany), Bayreuth (Germany), Maribor (Slovenia), and Tongji Shanghai (China). Since 2011, he serves as a Visiting Professor for Health Economics at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences and as a Visiting Professor for Healthcare Management and Economics at Ilia State University (Georgia). Mr. Roeder is the Managing Director of Healthcare Solutions, with a focus on know-how transfer and policy advise from German healthcare to healthcare systems in transition. Besides working with Central and Eastern Europe countries, he also actively works in the currently reformed health system of the Republic of Georgia and in East Asian countries.

Maria Lily Shaw

Associate Researcher

Maria Lily conducts research using government websites, among other sources, and ensures the accuracy and integrity of the data contained in our work. She is always on the lookout for new data and information that could be of interest to the general public and enhance our publications. Besides the free coffee and her wonderful coworkers, what Maria likes the most about her work is collaborating with professionals and experts in various fields who share their views about what’s happening on the ground.

Maria Lily holds a master’s degree in economics from McGill University. Prior to her graduate studies, she studied at the Université de Montréal and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics. She completed the honors program and earned a mention of excellence, in addition to being involved in the Economics Students’ Association at the Université de Montréal (AÉÉSÉUM). In her free time, Maria likes to stretch her legs outside, either downhill skiing, going for a walk, or hiking up a mountain. She was an Economist at the MEI from September 2020 to July 2022.

Peter St. Onge

Senior Fellow

Peter St. Onge is a former assistant professor at Taiwan’s Feng Chia University, has served as a fellow at the Mises Institute, and was general partner of a private equity fund in Washington, D.C. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University, and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from McGill University.

Guillaume Tremblay

Associate Researcher

Guillaume Tremblay holds a master’s degree in applied economics and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from HEC Montréal. He has worked as a foreign exchange trader on currency markets for four years, thus developing financial asset pricing skills. He was part of the Montreal Economic Institute team from January 2013 to November 2015 as a Public Policy Analyst.

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