A CIRANO Associate Researcher and Fellow since 2011,Greg Tkacz is Professor in the Department of Economics at St. Francis Xavier University. He is also Chair of the Economics Department since 2013.

Holding a Ph.D. in Economics from McGill University, he specializes in forecasting and monetary policy.

Prior to joining the Economics Department at StFX in 2010, he spent 14 years as a researcher and manager at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa. In that capacity he developed some expertise in modeling the relationship between financial market movements and their impacts on the economy, and also explored the usefulness of new macroeconomic forecasting techniques and indicators. His current research focuses on the use of new high-frequency electronic payments indicators, such as aggregate debit and credit card transactions, for measuring economic activity in a more timely manner.

His work has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and published in leading international journals, such as the Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Forecasting and the Journal of International Money & Finance. He has also served on several Editorial Boards, such as those of the Canadian Journal of Economics and L’Actualité économique. In 2020 he was invited to serve as a Guest Editor of a special issue of Canadian Public Policy on the economic impact of Covid-19.