Supply Shocks and Real Exchange Rate Dynamics: Canadian Evidence

In this paper, we study the impact of supply shocks on the Canadian real exchange rate. We specify a structural vector-error-correction model that links the real exchange rate to different fundamentals. The identification scheme we use to recover the different shocks is based on long-run restrictions and allows us to decompose the real exchange rate according to different long-run trends, basically defined in terms of permanent shocks. Two main results emerge from our analysis. First, a positive supply shock in favour of Canada leads to a real exchange rate appreciation. Although consistent with the Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis, this result contradicts previous findings that have used a similar methodology. Second, commodity price shocks tend to dominate exchange rate movements over the short and medium run, but supply shocks have the largest impact over the long run. In particular, supply shocks explain most of the stochastic depreciation of the Canadian real exchange rate since the beginning of the 1990s.