John Lester

John Lester

Executive Fellow, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary

John Lester is an Executive Fellow with The School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. He is a former federal government economist who writes on public policy issues. John’s last public service assignment was Director of Research for the Expert Panel Review of Federal Support to Research and Development. Prior to that, he managed the Tax Evaluations and Research Group at Finance Canada. Since leaving the public service, John has published papers with The School of Public Policy, the Canadian Tax Journal, Canadian Public Policy, the C.D. Howe Institute, and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. His research interests include cost-benefit analysis of tax incentives for business investment, particularly those related to R&D and innovation, government support for small business and entrepreneurship, tax expenditure analysis, and the burden of the public debt.