The C.D. Howe Institute has appointed a new member to its Monetary Policy Council, president & CEO William Robson announced Wednesday.

Dr. Christopher Ragan, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at McGill University is rejoining the MPC.

“Chris Ragan is one of Canada’s pre-eminent macro economists, with an extraordinary record of academic accomplishment and public service,” says Robson, who is the council’s non-voting chair. “We are delighted to have him return to the Monetary Policy Council.”

A member of the council from its inception in August 2003, Ragan resigned in July 2004 to take a position as special advisor to the governor of the Bank of Canada for the 2004/05 academic year, and rejoined the group in 2005. He subsequently left the council to become 2009-2010 Clifford Clark Visiting Economist in the Department of Finance.

Ragan has a PhD (Economics) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MA (Economics) from Queen’s University in Kingston. He is the co-author with Richard Lipsey of Economics (13th Edition), the most widely used introductory economics textbook in Canada. Ragan replaces Dr. Angela Redish, Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of British Columbia. Redish is stepping down after six years on the council.

Made up of 12 of Canada’s most distinguished financial-market and monetary economists, the council provides a regular, independent assessment of the Bank of Canada’s stance as it seeks to achieve its 2% inflation target.

IE