Bio

Olivier Gervais is the Director of the Projection Division in the Canadian Economic Analysis department. His team mainly focuses on the department’s economic projections, risks analyses, and monetary policy recommendations. His primary interests are macroeconomic modelling, economic forecasting, and applied time-series econometrics.

Olivier’s career started at the Bank in 2008 as an economist in the International Economic Department. He moved to CEA in 2011, where he started working on macroeconomic projections. Prior to his current role, Olivier was a Policy Advisor in the Canadian Economic Analysis department.

He holds a masters’ degree from the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Staff analytical notes

The Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases on the Canadian Economy

Staff Analytical Note 2017-26 Dany Brouillette, Daniel Gao, Olivier Gervais, Calista Cheung
This note reviews the channels through which scheduled minimum wage increases over the coming years may affect Canadian economic activity and inflation and assesses their macroeconomic impacts. From reduced-form estimates of direct minimum wage pass-through, we find that consumer price index (CPI) inflation could be boosted by about 0.1 percentage point (pp) on average in 2018.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Labour markets, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, J, J2, J21, J22, J23

Alternative Scenario to the October 2017 MPR Base-Case Projection: Higher Potential Growth

Staff Analytical Note 2017-18 Jing Yang, Ben Tomlin, Olivier Gervais
We construct an alternative scenario in which trend labour input and business investment are stronger than that expected in the Bank of Canada’s base-case projection in the October 2017 Monetary Policy Report.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Monetary policy, Potential output JEL Code(s): E, E2, E22, E24, E27, E5

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Staff discussion papers

Transition Scenarios for Analyzing Climate-Related Financial Risk

Staff Discussion Paper 2022-1 Y.-H. Henry Chen, Erik Ens, Olivier Gervais, Hossein Hosseini, Craig Johnston, Serdar Kabaca, Miguel Molico, Sergey Paltsev, Alex Proulx, Argyn Toktamyssov
Climate transition scenarios clarify climate-related risks to our economy and financial system. This paper summarizes key results of Canada-relevant scenarios developed in a pilot project on climate risk by the Bank of Canada and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Climate change, Economic models, Financial stability, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C6, C68, D, D5, D58, E, E5, E50, O, O4, O44, P, P1, P18, Q, Q5, Q54

How Oil Supply Shocks Affect the Global Economy: Evidence from Local Projections

Staff Discussion Paper 2019-6 Olivier Gervais
We provide empirical evidence on the impact of oil supply shocks on global aggregates. To do this, we first extract structural oil supply shocks from a standard oil-price determination model found in the literature.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, C5, E, E3, E37, Q, Q4, Q43

External Stability, Real Exchange Rate Adjustment and the Exchange Rate Regime in Emerging-Market Economies

Staff Discussion Paper 2011-5 Olivier Gervais, Lawrence L. Schembri, Lena Suchanek
In emerging-market economies, real exchange rate adjustment is critical for maintaining a sustainable current account position and thereby for helping to reduce macroeconomic and financial instability.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Development economics, Exchange rate regimes, International topics JEL Code(s): F, F3, F31, F32, F4, F41

The Outlook for the Global Supply of Oil: Running on Faith?

Staff Discussion Paper 2009-9 Olivier Gervais, Ilan Kolet
The dramatic reduction in global demand, and the decline in the spot price of crude oil in the second half of last year, may have significant implications for the future supply of oil. Investments in conventional methods of extraction have been constrained, since easily accessible oil reserves are typically concentrated in countries with geopolitical uncertainty and/or state-run oil companies.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Inflation and prices, International topics JEL Code(s): Q, Q4, Q41, Q43

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Technical reports

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Journal publications

Refereed journals

  • "Current Account Dynamics, Real Exchange Rate Adjustment and the Exchange Rate Regime in Emerging-Market Economies"
    (with Lawrence Schembri and Lena Suchanek), Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 119, March 2016, p. 86-89.