Lawrence Schembri

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

Lawrence Schembri served as the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2013 until his retirement in June 2022. In this capacity, he was one of two deputy governors responsible for overseeing the Bank’s analysis and activities promoting a stable and efficient financial system. Starting in 2016, he was responsible for overseeing the Bank’s analysis of domestic economic developments. As a member of the Bank’s governing council, he shared responsibility for decisions related to monetary policy and financial system stability and for setting the Bank’s strategic direction. Mr. Schembri joined the Bank in 1997 as a visiting research advisor in what is now the International Economic Analysis Department. In 2001, he was appointed senior research director in the same department and became its managing director in 2005. In 2010 he was appointed advisor to the governor, with responsibilities for financial stability analysis and coordinating the Bank’s contribution to the Financial Stability Board. While at the Bank, Mr. Schembri was an active researcher, publishing research on exchange rate and monetary theory and policy in open economies, the international monetary system, and financial stability. A champion of efforts to promote economic literacy and Indigenous economic opportunity, he sponsored the Bank’s Governor’s Challenge undergraduate student competition and was a founding member of the Central Bank Network for Indigenous Inclusion. He currently serves on the board of the Tulo Centre of Indigenous Economics. Mr. Schembri received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto, an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the Bank of Canada, Mr. Schembri was an assistant professor and, later, associate professor of economics at Carleton University.

Recent Research by Lawrence Schembri

— Apr 11, 2024
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GDP Growth Unadjusted for Population Change—a Misleading Measure of Canada’s Economic Progress finds that due to large differences in population growth among developed countries, and Canada’s recent immigration-fuelled population surge, it’s now more useful to use per-person GDP to measure economic performance instead of overall GDP growth.

— Dec 5, 2023
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The Next Generation: Innovating to Improve Indigenous Access to Finance in Canada

The Next Generation: Innovating to Improve Indigenous Access to Finance in Canada is a new study that finds a well-functioning Indigenous financial system is essential to promoting investment and economic development and raising living standards in Indigenous communities.

— Aug 18, 2023
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Let the Sun Shine In! Policy Transparency Improves Economic Outcomes

Let The Sun Shine In: Policy Transparency Improves Economic Outcomes is a new study analyzing the increased transparency at central banks and the enhanced effectiveness of monetary policy over the past half-century, and highlights useful lessons for fiscal policymakers regarding government spending and public debt.