Bev Dahlby

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

Bev Dahlby, Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute, attended St. Peter’s College, the University of Saskatchewan, Queen’s University and the London School of Economics. He was Professor of Economics at the University of Alberta from 1978 to 2012 and Distinguished Fellow in Tax and Economic Growth at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary from 2012 to 2020. Bev has published extensively on tax policy and fiscal federalism. He has served as an Associate Editor of Canadian Public Policy and a member of the editorial board of the Canadian Tax Journal. He has been a member of the Executive Council of the Canadian Economics Association and the National Statistics Council. Bev has also served as a policy advisor to the federal and provincial governments. In 2010-11, he was a member of the Expert Panel on Federal Support to Research and Development (Jenkins Panel) and the Ecofiscal Commission from 2014 to 2019. In July 2016, he was appointed Chair of the British Columbia Commission on Tax Competitiveness by the BC Minister of Finance. In May 2019, Bev was appointed by the Government of Alberta to the Blue Ribbon Panel to review the province’s finances. His international experience includes advisory work on tax reform for the IMF in Malawi, for the Thailand Development Research Institute, and for the World Bank in Brazil and Mexico.

Recent Research by Bev Dahlby

— Mar 16, 2023
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Stress Testing the Federal Fiscal Anchor

Stress Testing the Federal Fiscal Anchor finds that that there is a 30 per cent chance that the federal debt to GDP ratio will increase over a 10-year time period, meaning the federal government would fail to achieve its core fiscal goal.

— Dec 6, 2022
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An Evaluation of Three Alternative Fiscal Anchors for Canada

An Evaluation of Three Alternative Fiscal Anchors for Canada is a new study that evaluates three fiscal rules that Canadian governments could adopt: (1) a debt reduction target, (2) a ceiling on the ratio of interest payments to revenues, and (3) a balanced budget rule (achieved by either spending restraint or tax increases).

— Jul 7, 2022
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The Fiscal Costs of Debt-Financed Government Spending

The Fiscal Costs of Debt-Financed Government Spending is a new study that finds debt-financed government spending has real economic costs, even when interest rates are very low, including slower economic growth, lower private sector incomes, and spending cuts and/or tax increases by government to stabilize debt levels.