Bev Dahlby

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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

The Case for Replacing British Columbia’s Inefficient Provincial Sales Tax with a Made-in-BC VAT
— Jun 28, 2024
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The Case for Replacing British Columbia’s Inefficient Provincial Sales Tax with a Made-in-BC VAT

The Case for Replacing British Columbia’s Inefficient Provincial Sales Tax with a Made-in-BC VAT is a new study that finds replacing the current B.C. Provincial Sales Tax with a Harmonized Sales Tax (or a Value Added Tax) would reduce taxes on business inputs, particularly machinery and equipment, which discourages investment, lowers productivity, and slows economic growth. Removing this tax on machinery and equipment could increase annual incomes in B.C. by an estimated $700 to $1,700 per worker.

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How Have Canadian Federal Governments Responded to Budget Deficits?
— May 31, 2024
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ow Have Canadian Federal Governments Responded to Budget Deficits?

How Have Canadian Federal Governments Responded to Budget Deficits? is a new study that measures how Canadian federal governments have responded to budget deficits over the last 150 years. It finds that a delay in balancing the budget will require deeper spending cuts and higher tax hikes in the future than if the government balanced the budget now. Put simply, it is better if the federal government embarks on fiscal adjustment early on, rather than postponing deficit elimination.

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Adrift without an Anchor: Federal Fiscal Policy and Canada’s Long-Term Debt Ratio
— Feb 1, 2024
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Adrift without an Anchor

Adrift without an Anchor: Federal Fiscal Policy and Canada’s Long-Term Debt Ratio finds that that there is a 44 per cent chance that the federal debt to GDP ratio will increase by 2036-37, and a 59 per cent chance it will increase by 2046-47—meaning the federal government would fail to stick to its core fiscal goal.

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