Media Releases

Rotman Professors Win 2016 Fellowship and Governor’s Awards from the Bank of Canada

April 15, 2016

Toron­to, ON – Two pro­fes­sors at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment have been named as the recip­i­ents of pres­ti­gious research awards from the Bank of Cana­da today.

Dan Tre­fler, a pro­fes­sor of busi­ness eco­nom­ics who holds the J. Dou­glas and Ruth Grant Cana­da Research Chair in Com­pet­i­tive­ness and Pros­per­i­ty, is the recip­i­ent of the Bank’s Fel­low­ship Award.

Liyan Yang, an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of finance, is the recip­i­ent of the Bank’s Governor’s Award.

The Bank of Canada’s Fel­low­ship Pro­gram is designed to encour­age lead­ing-edge research and the devel­op­ment of exper­tise in Cana­da in a num­ber of areas crit­i­cal to the Bank’s man­date: macro­eco­nom­ics, mon­e­tary eco­nom­ics and inter­na­tion­al finance, as well as the eco­nom­ics of finan­cial mar­kets and insti­tu­tions, includ­ing their finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty. Each Fel­low­ship Award is for a term of up to five years. Peter Christof­fersen, a pro­fes­sor of finance at the Rot­man School and the TSX Chair in Cap­i­tal Mar­kets, was the recip­i­ent of the Fel­low­ship in 2013.

The Governor’s Award rec­og­nizes out­stand­ing aca­d­e­mics at a rel­a­tive­ly ear­ly stage in their careers, who are work­ing at Cana­di­an uni­ver­si­ties in areas of research crit­i­cal to the Bank’s man­date. The award is grant­ed for a non-renew­able term of up to two years.

“The Bank of Cana­da is delight­ed to present the Fel­low­ship Award to an excep­tion­al econ­o­mist with a remark­able record of path-break­ing research. Prof. Trefler’s focus on export per­for­mance, invest­ment and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty is of great inter­est to the Bank,” said Stephen S. Poloz, Gov­er­nor of the Bank of Cana­da. “The Bank is also proud to sup­port Prof. Yang, whose work is push­ing the fron­tiers of finan­cial eco­nom­ics. We expect his inter­ac­tions with our research staff will improve our col­lec­tive under­stand­ing of the chal­lenges the Bank is facing—today and in years to come.”

Prof. Tre­fler is an inter­na­tion­al­ly respect­ed trade econ­o­mist, known for his path-break­ing con­tri­bu­tions to pub­lic pol­i­cy for­ma­tion in Cana­da. His research has been instru­men­tal in the design and pur­suit of trade agree­ments that pro­mote pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, inno­va­tion and invest­ment while min­i­miz­ing the harm­ful effects on work­ers through unem­ploy­ment and wage effects. He holds a joint appoint­ment with the Depart­ment of Eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. Prof. Tre­fler is also a senior research fel­low at the Cana­di­an Insti­tute for Advanced Research, a research fel­low at the C.D. Howe Insti­tute and an advi­sor to the Insti­tute for Com­pet­i­tive­ness & Pros­per­i­ty. He sits on the board of the Ontario Task Force on Com­pet­i­tive­ness, Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and Eco­nom­ic Progress.

Prof. Yang joined the Rot­man School in 2009. His research inter­ests are in asset pric­ing, behav­ioral finance and infor­ma­tion eco­nom­ics. His cur­rent research focus­es on infor­ma­tion trans­mis­sion and pro­duc­tion in finan­cial mar­kets and relat­ed reg­u­la­tion issues. He has received many awards for his research includ­ing the 2011 Inau­gur­al TCFA (The Chi­nese Finance Asso­ci­a­tion) Award for the Best Paper on Glob­al Finan­cial Mar­kets, the Con­naught New Researcher Award from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to in 2013 and received the Roger Mar­tin Award for Excel­lence in Research from the Rot­man School in 2015.

Prof. Francesco Treb­bi from the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Columbia’s Van­cou­ver School of Eco­nom­ics was also a recip­i­ent of the Bank’s Fel­low­ship Award.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the Bank’s Fel­low­ship pro­gram is online.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is locat­ed in the heart of Canada’s com­mer­cial and cul­tur­al cap­i­tal and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, one of the world’s top 20 research uni­ver­si­ties. The Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables our grad­u­ates to tack­le today’s glob­al busi­ness and soci­etal chal­lenges.  For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion:

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tele: 416.946.3818
mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca

Fol­low Rot­man on Twit­ter @rotmanschool