The Doug Purvis Memorial Prize is awarded annually to the authors of a highly significant, written contribution to Canadian economic policy.  The award was established in 1994 in honour and memory of noted Canadian economist Doug Purvis. The competition is open to all forms of print media in which material relevant to Canadian economic policy appears, including books, single articles in scholarly journals, government studies including monographs done for royal commissions, think tank reports and a series of articles in newspapers or magazines.The Doug Purvis Memorial Prize selection committee is made up of five Canadian economists from academia, government and the private sector. 

The memory of Doug  Purvis is also honoured each year with the Purvis Lunch at the annual meetings of the Canadian Economics Association, at which the Purvis Prize is awarded to the winner. The Purvis Lunch also features the Doug Purvis Memorial Lecture about economic policy topics by eminent economists. Since the Prize was first awarded in 1994, a quarter century has passed. Today it is widely recognized in the economics profession as the premier academic award for Canadian economic policy contributions.

The Canadian Economics Association is grateful to the family of Doug Purvis for funding the prize, and for their continuing support. The CEA would also like to acknowledge with gratitude all other donors who have contributed to the prize: Power Corporation, TD Canada Trust, RBC, CIBC, Horizons ETFs, Shawcorp, Lang Michener, the Cidel Group, and the Felesky family.

Past Winners
(by year of award)

2023 Award Winners: Jeremy Kronick, Steve Ambler, Thor Koeppl (published by the C.D. Howe Institute) for “The Consequences of the Bank of Canada’s Ballooned Balance Sheet”.

Honourable Mention to: “Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women in Canada” edited by Lindsay Tedds and Jennifer Robson, and “Loss of Life and Labor Productivity: The Canadian Opioid Crisis” by Joseph Marchand and Alexander Cheung (with Patricia Mark).

2022 Nouri Najjar (Western University) and Jevan Cherniwchan (Carlton University) for their paper "Environmental Regulations and the Cleanup of Manufacturing: Plant-Level Evidence" in the Review of Economics and Statistics.

2021 Chris Riddell and W. Craig Riddell for: Interpreting Experimental Evidence in the Presence of Postrandomization Events: A Reassessment of the Self-Sufficiency Project. Journal of Labor Economics 38 (4), 873-914. And,

The CPP Editorial Board for: Three supplementary COVID issues entitled, “The COVID-19 Pandemic/La pandémie de COVID-19” published in July, August, and October of 2020 in Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de politiques.

2020 David Card (University of California, Berkeley) and Philip Oreopoulos (University of Toronto), editors of “Small Differences II: Public Policies in Canada and the United States”, a special issue of the Journal of Labour Economics.

2019  Lars Osberg for his work The Age of Increasing Inequality: The Astonishing Rise of Canada's 1%, 2018.

2018  Stephen Tapp, Ari Van Assche, and Robert Wolfe for their work Redesigning Canadian Trade Policies for New Global Realities, Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2017.

2017  David Green, W. Craig Riddell and France St-Hilaire for their book Income Equality: The Canadian Story, Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2016.

2016  The Ecofiscal Commission for their report The Way Forward: A Practical Approach to Reducing Canada's Greenhouse Gas Emissions, April 2015.

2015  Kevin Milligan (Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia for his C.D. Howe Institute report Tax Policy for a New Era: Promoting Economic Growth and Fairness, Toronto, November 2014.

2014  Miles Corak (Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa) for his paper Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility, Journal of Economic Perspectives 27(3), Summer 2013, pp. 79-102.

2013  Kathleen M. Day (University of Ottawa) and Stanley L. Winer (Carleton University) for their book Interregional Migration and Public Policy in Canada, Carleton Library Series 223, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012.

2012  Charles M. Beach (Queen's University), the late Alan G. Green (Queen's University), and Christopher Worswick (Carleton University) for their book Toward Improving Canada's Skilled Immigration Policy: An Evaluation Approach.

2011  Kenneth McKenzie and Natalia Sershun (both University of Calgary) for their article Taxation and R&D: An investigation of the Push and Pull Effects.

2010  Bev Dahlby (University of Alberta) for his article Once on the Lips, Forever on the Hips: A Benefit-Cost Analysis of Fiscal Stimulus in OECD Countries, C.D. Howe Institute Backgrounder.

2009  Michael Baker (University of Toronto and NBER), Jonathan Gruber (MIT and NBER), and Kevin Milligan (UBC) for their article Universal Child Care, Maternal Labor Supply, and Family Well Being, Journal of Political Economy 116(4), August 2008.

2008  Gérard Bélanger (Département d'économique, Université Laval) is the winner of the 2008 Doug Purvis Memorial Prize for his book, L'économie du Québec, Mythes et Réalité, Editions Varia, Montréal, 2007.

2007  David Green (University of British Columbia) and Jonathan Kesselman (Simon Fraser University) for their edited volume Dimensions of Inequality in Canada, UBC Press, 2006

2006  Emmanuel Saez (University of California at Berkeley) and Michael Veall (McMaster University) for their research paper, The Evolution of High Incomes in Northern America: Lessons from Canadian Evidence, American Economic Review 95(3) 2005, 831-849.

2005  Erwin Diewert (University of British Columbia) for his contributions to Consumer Price Index Manual: Theory and Practice (Geneva: ILO, 2004) and to Producer Price Index Manual: Theory and Practice (Washington: IMF, 2004).
Announcement and Citation 

2004  Brian R. Copeland (University of British Columbia) and M. Scott Taylor (University of Calgary) for their book Trade and the Environment: Theory and Evidence (Princeton University Press, 2003)

2003  Paul Collins (Strikeman Elliot), Edward Iacobucci (University of Toronto), Michael Trebilock (University of Toronto) and Ralph Winter (University of British Columbia) for their book The Law and Economics of Canadian Competition Policy, University of Toronto Press, 2002.

2002  Jack Mintz (C.D. Howe Institute) for his book Most Favoured Nation: Building a Framework for Smart Economic Policy (C.D. Howe Institute, 2001).

2001  Frances Woolley (Carleton University) and Carole Vincent (Institute for Research on Public Policy) for their book Taxing Canadian Families: What's Fair, What's Not, Choices, vol. 6 (July 2000): 3-42.

2000  Ronald Kneebone (University of Calgary) and Kenneth McKenzie (University of Calgary) for Past (In)Discretions: Canadian Federal and Provincial Policy

1999  John Helliwell (University of British Columbia) for How Much Do National Borders Matter (Brookings Institution).

1998  Jonathan Kesselman (University of British Columbia) for General Payroll Taxes: Economics, Politics and Design (Canadian Tax Foundation).

1997  Pierre Fortin (Université du Québec à Montréal) for his article The Great Canadian Slump, Canadian Journal of Economics.
Edward Greenspon (The Globe and Mail) and Anthony Wilson-Smith (MacLean's Magazine) for Double Vision - The Inside Story of the Liberals in Power (Doubleday).

1996  Bob Young (University of Western Ontario) for The Secession of Quebec and the Future of Canada (McGill-Queen's University Press with the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen's University).

1995  Tom Courchene (Queen's University) for Social Canada in the Millenium (C.D. Howe Institute)

1994  Craig Riddell (University of British Columbia) and David Card (Princeton University) for A Comparative Analysis of Unemployment in Canada and the United States, and,
David Laidler (University of Western Ontario) and William Robson (CD Howe Institute) for The Great Canadian Disinflation (C.D. Howe Institute).

"The Bear"

Call for Nominations: 

Nominations are requested for the 2024 award of an annual prize to honour the memory of the late Douglas D. Purvis. The award is to be presented for a work of excellence relating to Canadian economic policy and published in 2023. The award is open to all forms of written media in which material relevant to Canadian economic policy appears, including a series of articles in newspapers or magazines, books, single articles in scholarly journals, government studies including monographs done for royal commissions, other official documents, and think-tank reports. To be eligible, the material must be published and primarily, but not necessarily exclusively, related to some issue in Canadian economic policy. Note, current members of the CEA Presidential cycle (President, Vice-President, Deputy Vice-President, and current Past President) are excluded from prize eligibility. 

Nominations are to be submitted by March 31st, 2024. Electronic submissions (in PDF format) are preferred and should be sent to Paula Emery at office@economics.ca with "Purvis Prize" included in the subject line. Your email should include the name and address of the nominator and full details of the nominee, including affiliation. Individuals wanting to submit their Purvis Prize submissions by hardcopy need to contact Paula Emery at office@economics.ca for further instructions.

The selection committee is nominated by the Canadian Economics Association and the Canadian Association for Business Economists.