Can anyone describe the life of a research economist there? Policy load, research expectations, etc
Not interested in opinions on Ottawa just the position
Bank of canada a good gig?
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The research coming out of BOC is very weak and not likely to land you a pub in top journal. They are mainly happy with publishing working papers and going to crappy conferences like the CEA. If you want to be a public servant and a deadwood for like then it is the place.
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The research coming out of BOC is very weak and not likely to land you a pub in top journal. They are mainly happy with publishing working papers and going to crappy conferences like the CEA. If you want to be a public servant and a deadwood for like then it is the place.
Agree having worked in this place, it is worse as it gets in research space. Also, the city of Ottawa is horrible to live in and do not forget about the bad weather this place gets like 8 months of the year.
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The research coming out of BOC is very weak and not likely to land you a pub in top journal. They are mainly happy with publishing working papers and going to crappy conferences like the CEA. If you want to be a public servant and a deadwood for like then it is the place.
So what. It's not like a top 50 PhD program. But in the land scale of academia. If you look at places that are good places to work i.e. u.s. schools with PhD programs like u Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, bingmanton, buffalo, many would consider those places as having a higher standard than bank of Canada. They are in places like tuscaloosa or Fayetteville.
Ottawa might be boring next to Toronto , but id rather live there than at many of the comparable research universities.
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The pay is pretty good by Canadian standards over $110,000 (cdn). Contrary to what trolls say the average tax rate is 30% at that level. You can rent a very nice two bedroom condo within walking distance to the BoC for about $2,000 a month. Housing is affordable by Canadian standards. The Bank is also along the new light rail/subway line set to open in 2019.
Ottawa is somewhat sleepy especially compared to Toronto or Montreal. It does however have lots of nice restaurants, an NHL team, and decent concerts. It is pretty great for families with small children as there are lots of parks and museums.
One nice thing about the Bank is that there is lots of funding to go to conferences. I know people who go to 6 or more a year and all are paid for by the Bank. Many academic jobs have funding for 0 or 1 conference a year.
Some groups have lots of research time and many people working on similar topics. Other groups spent most of their time writing research reports.
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^The Bank also has a pretty good pension.
The outdoor amenities in Ottawa are great. There are hundreds of kilometers of paved bike paths, and amazing cross country skiing - especially in Gatineau park.
The weather is terrible in January and February but not too bad otherwise.