The Bank of Canada has awarded two Department of Economics professors its Fellowship Award. Professors Michelle Alexopoulos and Diego Restuccia are recognized for their expertise and research into the national bank’s core functions: monetary policy, financial systems, currency, fund management, and retail payments supervision. The award has an annual value of $95,000 for a five-year renewable term. Both professors also received the award in 2019. “It is always an honour for the Department of Economics to see our faculty recognized for their outstanding achievements in research and their contributions to economics and its institutions,” said Professor Ettore Damiano, department chair. “Both Michelle and Diego are deserving of this recognition from the Bank of Canada and we are all thrilled to have two more reasons to celebrate them and the continuation of their work.”
Alexopoulos is current president of the Canadian Economics Association. where her term of service has emphasized equity and inclusion through mentoring and networking programs. Her research examines the effects of technological evolution and disruption on the economy and labour markets and, among other methodologies, includes the innovative use of library classification systems for data mining and text analysis.
“The Bank of Canada Fellowship enables me to continue working on important research in key areas related to productivity, technical change, and the impacts of monetary policy communications,” Alexopoulos said. “Research aimed at filling data gaps and gaining new insights into these topics should help optimize the effectiveness of policies, and help improve outcomes for individuals and firms in Canada and abroad.”
Also receiving the Fellowship Award again is Diego Restuccia. Restuccia is Canada Research Chair of Macroeconomics and Productivity. Restuccia’s work focusses on the macroeconomic implications of policies that change and influence how resources like land, capital, and labour, are distributed across firms. He examines these policies in conjunction with other important economic decisions, such as the adoption and disruption of new technologies.
“I am thrilled to receive again the prestigious Fellowship Award from the Bank of Canada,” Restuccia said. “This award will provide essential support in the next five years to my research program and complementary research in macroeconomics and productivity by PhD students in my research group.”