About Us

Sitting on the terrasse of a Montreal café in 1986, Steve Ambler, Paul Boothe and Louis Phaneuf reflected on the state of macroeconomics research in Canada and came to the conclusion that an outlet for its dissemination and discussion needed to be created. To this end, the Canadian Macroeconomics Study Group was created with the goal to 1) encourage exchanges and collaborations among Canadian researchers in macroeconomics, and 2) provide a platform for Canadian researchers, especially young researchers, for the presentation of their results on a regular basis. Two initiatives were established: a mailing list and annual meetings, starting in 1987.

Since then, annual meetings of the CMSG have been run in a decentralized way, with institutions taking turns to host each fall. This collegial tradition continues to this day.   In 2021, Allen Head and Henry Siu founded the CMSG Secretariat to provide administrative support to host institutions, taking over maintenance of the website and mailing list that had been tended to by Christian Zimmermann and Alain Guay for over 20 years.

The CMSG is one of the official study groups recognized by the Canadian Economics Association (CEA), and Michelle Alexopoulos organized sessions on behalf of the CMSG at the CEA Annual Meetings from 2005 to 2022.   From 2024, CMSG sessions at the CEA Annual Meetings are organized by Sophie Osotimehin (UQAM) and Joseph Steinberg (Toronto).