Fazley Siddiq

Fazley Siddiq is a Professor of Economics at the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University, a Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and is the 2012-13 Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Canada-U.S. Relations at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  He has served as a member of the professoriate at Dalhousie since 1986 and was Director of the School of Public Administration from 2005 until 2011.  Dr. Siddiq has taught at Queen’s University in Kingston and has worked for the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program. 

During his time as School Director, Professor Siddiq also served as Academic Director of Dalhousie’s MPA (Management) program, which is a blended graduate degree program combining electronic learning with end-of-term intensive classroom instruction, designed for mid-career and senior public servants.  He was also responsible for overseeing and staffing all public administration related courses in the Bachelor of Management program, a program that he helped launch in 1997.  He has supervised the work of senior public servants on full-time multi-year placement at Dalhousie, including federal ADMs and Nova Scotia Government CEOs.  Additionally, Dr. Siddiq served as the School's Graduate Coordinator for eight years, directed the MPA Internship Program for five years, chaired numerous selection committees for faculty positions and for Directors of other schools and served as an elected member of the Senate as well as the Senate Academic Planning and Budget Committee at Dalhousie.  He was tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 1992 and to Professor in 1999.  As School Director, Dr. Siddiq was instrumental in paying off the accumulated deficit in the MPA (M) program and generating almost $5 million in external contributions, research grants and contracts in addition to significant pro bono and in kind contributions.

Professor Siddiq has taught courses in the areas of managerial economics, public economics, quantitative methods, applied economics, economic policy and management, regional economic development and Canadian economic history.  He specializes in studies on the distribution of income and wealth, and the measurement of inequality, labour economics and public policy, and economic development.  Dr. Siddiq’s authored and co-authored articles include publications in The Review of Income and Wealth, Acadiensis, Canadian Journal of Regional Science, A.C.E.A. Papers, Nova Scotia Historical Review, Social Science Review, Canadian Historical Review, Research in Economic Inequality, Empirical Economics, Economics Letters, Canadian Business Economics, International Advances in Economic Research, Public Sector Management and Canadian Public Policy.  His refereeing work has included reviews of grant applications, journal articles, and applications for professorships at Canadian and British universities.  Dr. Siddiqhas presented papers and given lectures at scholarly meetings across Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas.  He also engaged in collaborative research with scholars at Queen's University in Kingston during a sabbatical leave in 1992-93, following which he served as a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales.  Professor Siddiq’s international appearances in recent years include invitations to speak and chair sessions at workshops and conferences in Perugia (Italy), London, Madrid, Warsaw, Rome and Athens.

Professor Siddiq’s contribution to international development includes an assignment at the University of Dhaka as a United Nations expert on curriculum development as well as the delivery of a series of course modules on economic development in Kathmandu over a three-year period in the 1990s.  He has trained academic instructors overseas and since 1997 has developed and taught courses on stabilization policy, public choice and cost-benefit analysis, and expenditure policy to public servants in Cuba and Vietnam.  Additionally, at the invitation of the Canadian Consortium of Management Schools, Dr. Siddiq conducted faculty development workshops on economic development in Karachi and Dhaka.  He played a key role in the Ukraine Project of the Canadian Bureau of International Education at Dalhousie, the Canada-China Management Education Program funded by CIDA, and Dalhousie’s three successive public sector capacity building projects in Cuba, also funded by CIDA.  Earlier in his career, Dr. Siddiq worked with small farmers and agricultural workers in rural Bangladesh during an assignment with FAO-UN. 

Professor Siddiq’s professional contribution is wide ranging.  In addition to the above, he has provided advice on economic policy and institutional reform, served as a consultant for federal and provincial governments in Canada on the environment and the economy, and on sales tax harmonization.  Since 2007, he has served as principal investigator for a range of research projects, from an assessment of best practices in addressing the underground economy to measuring the economic impact of international students.  Dr. Siddiq has served on the boards of the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada.  He has also served as a Director of the Atlantic Canada Economics Association, is a long-time member of the Canadian Economics Association and a life member of the International Atlantic Economic Society.