After getting her Ph. D. in economics,
Dr. Sherry Cooper began her career under the legendary term of Paul Volker at the US Federal Reserve Board. Later she moved to Toronto and became an economist with
BMO, authored three books, and earned praise from the
Globe and Mail as our "megawatt celebrity economist."
Today, Cooper's old mentor Volker, of course, is a key economic adviser to US President Barack Obama. But later this month, he'll appear at Arizona State University to present Cooper with this year's
Lawrence R. Klein award for economic forecasting accuracy. The prestigious prize is given to contributors to an annual "Blue Chip Report" compiled by a panel of roughly 50 top forecasters for North America. Cooper earned her award for being most accurate for the years 2006-2009.
"Dr. Cooper had to predict correctly a very difficult period of time in
the economy," Lee McPheters, economics professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business,
said in a release sent out by BMO to celebrate the award. "These years straddled both expansion
and contraction, both recession and the bottoming out. She was the most
accurate in an impressive field of the world's best forecasters."
Cooper shared credit for her accuracy with her colleagues saying, "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this award on behalf of my
economics team and especially my deputy, Douglas Porter. We were in a period of unnerving collapse and unprecedented volatility
for which there were no historical playbooks."
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Kim Hanson, Media Relations, BMO