At Vivic Research, we support agents working toward social justice through economic and data-driven research. We serve advocates, think tanks, governments, labour unions, and community engaged in the development of public policy. We empower our clients with economic knowledge through our practice areas: economic research, training, and data science.

Our Team

Inez Hillel (she/her)

Economist and Co-founder

Inez Hillel is co-founder and economist of Vivic Research. She currently works on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Inez is passionate about intersectional economics that center frontline voices and qualitative data as foundational for progressive policy development. Her focus at Vivic is projects that require ongoing community engagement and that allow her to connect with grassroots activists and organizations. Having previously worked at the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, she has conducted research on income supports in Canada. Inez holds an MA in Economics from Simon Fraser University and a BA in Applied Economics from Queen’s University. In 2020, Inez was the recipient of the British Columbia Graduate Scholarship and the Provost Prize of Distinction Scholarship from Simon Fraser University.

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Robin Shaban (they/them)

Senior Economist and Co-founder

Robin Shaban is co-founder and senior economist of Vivic Research, and currently works on the traditional and unceded Territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation. They bring an interest in quantitative analysis, policy microsimulation, and competition policy to Vivic’s work. Beginning in 2017 Robin has worked as a freelance consultant serving several think tank and advocacy organizations. Prior to that, they were the Andrew Jackson fellow at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and an officer at Canada’s Competition Bureau. This year Robin was a winner of the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business 2021 Changemakers award. They hold a MA in economics from Queen’s University and is also a PhD candidate at Carleton’s School of Public Policy and Administration, studying competition policy in Canada and around the globe. Robin is also a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

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Silas Xuereb (he/him)

Economist

Silas Xuereb is an Economist at Vivic Research and typically lives and works on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. Silas is especially interested in the causes and consequences of economic inequalities and also has a keen interest in political economy, the evolution of economic thought and modern pedagogy in the economics discipline. He has experience in data analysis, survey design and writing academic and public-facing papers through working at the World Inequality Lab, the UBC Housing Research Collaborative and in the federal government. He holds MAs in Economics from the University of British Columbia and the Paris School of Economics and has a background in social psychology.

Yunus Emre Bozkurt (he/him)

Research Assistant

Yunus Emre Bozkurt is an Research Assistant at Vivic Research. He respectfully acknowledges that he works on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca and the Mississaugas of the Credit. He is interested in the societal impacts of income inequality. While working at Vivic, his objective is to contribute to more equitable public policy designs with quantitative analysis. Previously, while working as a Research Assistant at the York University Community Finance Project, he designed a series of financial literacy workshops that aimed to provide fair and accessable financial services to Canadian consumers in an evolving marketplace. Emre holds a BA in Management from Bogazici University, as well as a BA and MA from the York University Department of Economics. He is currently still studying at York, completing a PhD in Economics.