By Jeremy Smith

The non-profit economic research think-tank-ish organization where I used to work in Ottawa is called the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (csls.ca). It's small but growing, and is a great place to work with a master's degree, with lots of opportunity to contribute to policy-relevant research.

Along these same lines, also in Ottawa, are the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (policyalternatives.ca) and the Canadian Policy Research Network (cprn.com). In Montreal there is the Institute for Research on Public Policy (irpp.org). In Toronto is the C. D. Howe Institute (cdhowe.org), which is probably the closest thing Canada has to a true think tank.

Another interesting place in Ottawa is the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (srdc.org). They design and run controlled social experiments and analyze and report on the results.

The "big six" Canadian banks each have an economics section, as far as I know. The headquarters for the Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Bank of Montreal are all located in Toronto, and the National Bank of Canada is in Montreal. I know for sure that TD Economics and the economics group at National Bank do some "business economics" and economics-inspired financial analysis and reporting.

Lots of federal government departments (Finance, Industry, Foreign Affairs, Competition Bureau, Human Resources, Social Development, Environment, Natural Resources -- all in Ottawa) hire economists, but they do so through a centralized system (http://jobs-emplois.gc.ca/psr-rp/index-eng.htm). This mostly happens starting in the fall of each year. The Bank of Canada (in Ottawa -- http://www.bank-banque-canada.ca/en/index.html) is non-governmental so does not go through this system, but it tends to interview and hire at the same times. Jobs in the Ontario government (mostly in the Toronto area) are organized in their own system (http://www.gojobs.gov.on.ca/Jobs.aspx). I'm sure that the other provinces have similar systems.

If you would like further information, I'd be happy to try to answer your questions by e-mail (jersmith@bu.edu).