She and her team correctly pinpointed key indicators at both the beginning of the recession and the beginning of the recovery. For these remarkable predictions, Dr. Sherry Cooper, executive vice president and chief economist for BMO Financial Group, will receive this year's prestigious Lawrence R. Klein Award for economic forecasting accuracy.
Cooper has been described by Canada's national newspaper as “the megawatt celebrity economist.” In this case, she beat out about 50 other top North American economic forecasters to receive one of the best-known and longest-standing awards in the profession.
“I am thrilled and humbled to receive this award on behalf of my economics team and especially my deputy, Douglas Porter,” says Cooper. “We were in a period of unnerving collapse and unprecedented volatility for which there were no historical playbooks.”
Cooper's mentor, Paul Volcker, chairman of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board and former Federal Reserve Board chairman, will present her with the award at an Oct. 21 ceremony in New York. Cooper will also deliver her 2011 forecast at the event.
The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University sponsors and judges the award, named for Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Lawrence R. Klein. Cooper won this year's award for having the most accurate economic forecast among the Blue Chip Economic Indicators survey for the years 2006 to 2009.