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The Canadian Economic Association has honoured Faculty of Arts and Science Economics professor Robert Clark with the prestigious John Rae Prize.

The Prize is awarded every second year to the Canadian economist with the best research record during the last five years. The Prize is intended to recognize research excellence in the recent past. The award has been named after John Rae, born in Scotland in 1796, who did most of his work in Canada.

holds the Stephen J.R. Smith Chair in Economic Policy and is a leading researcher in the field of industrial organization of the financial sector. Since 2019, Dr. Clark has published nine papers in highly ranked journals, including four published in the top-five journals in economics: one in the American Economic Review, two in the Journal of Political Economy, and one in the Review of Economic Studies; as well as one in the revise and resubmit stage at the American Economic Review. The remaining papers are published in the top ranked field journals in his area of expertise.

“My area of research is competition policy and regulation and I have focused much of my attention on market power in different retail markets such as banking and gasoline,” says Dr. Clark. “I study the impact of mergers and of collusion and try to understand how cartels are organized. I've studied the cartel that allegedly operated in the Canadian bread industry for almost 15 years, along with alleged cartels in retail gasoline markets. More recently I have been investigating the possibility that AI-driven pricing algorithms might be able to facilitate collusion. My work on banking has also led me to consider the relationship between competition and stability and I have devoted attention to the resolution process of failed financial institutions.”

His paper “Resolving failed banks: Uncertainty, multiple bidding and auction design,” forthcoming in the Review of Economic Studies, was recognized by the International Industrial Organization Society with the 2020 award for the best paper in Regulatory Economics. Dr. Clark’s pioneering work in the field was also recognized with the 2022-2027 .

Dr. Clark says maintaining a top research record requires hard work and the opportunity to work with excellent coauthors.

"I have been fortunate to collaborate with economists at Queen's, but also at other Canadian institutions such as Toronto, HEC Montreal, and the Bank of Canada, as well as at various universities throughout the world. The Queen's PhD program in Economics is also strong, and I have collaborated with many excellent students over the years. I have benefited from tremendous support from the Queen's Economics department through the Stephen J.R. Smith Chair in Economic Policy that I hold, and the John Deutch Institute. I am also a Fellow of the Bank of Canada, which provides me with funding, and a Fellow at the (����鴡����).”

As for the future, Dr. Clark explains he has several ongoing research projects he’s working on including examining whether cartels operating in retail markets misallocate resources when they agree on a uniform price, since consumers can shop where they want and may choose to purchase from less efficient suppliers if these are more convenient for them. He’s also investigating the role that parent co-signing plays in exacerbating our housing affordability crisis. Parent co-signing of mortgages has increased over the past two decades along with house prices, and the evidence suggests that this has allowed the adult children of co-signing parents to purchase much more expensive houses than they otherwise would have been able to afford.

Learn more about the John Rae Prize on the .