December 23, 2004
Staff research, Publications
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December 20, 2004
The New International Monetary Order
Mark Carney, Senior Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Finance, Speech to the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts -
Trade Credit and Credit Rationing in Canadian Firms
Burkart and Ellingsen's (2004) model of trade credit and bank credit rationing predicts that trade credit will be used by medium-wealth and low-wealth firms to help ease bank credit rationing. -
An Empirical Analysis of the Canadian Term Structure of Zero-Coupon Interest Rates
Zero-coupon interest rates are the fundamental building block of fixed-income mathematics, and as such have an extensive number of applications in both finance and economics. -
The Monetary Origins of Asymmetric Information in International Equity Markets
Existing studies using low-frequency data show that macroeconomic shocks contribute little to international stock market covariation. -
Une approche éclectique d'estimation du PIB potentiel pour le Royaume-Uni
The author describes results obtained by using a new methodology to estimate potential output for the United Kingdom. -
Modelling the Evolution of Credit Spreads in the United States
The authors use Jarrow and Turnbull's (1995) reduced-form methodology to model the evolution of the term structure of interest rates in the United States for different credit classes and different industries. -
November 24, 2004
Asset Prices and Monetary Policy: A Canadian Perspective on the Issues
The issue addressed in this article is the extent to which monetary policy in Canada should respond to asset-price bubbles. The article concludes that maintaining low and stable consumer price inflation is the best contribution that monetary policy can make to promoting economic and financial stability, even when the economy experiences asset-price bubbles. In extreme circumstances—when an asset-price bubble is well identified and likely to have significant costs to the economy when it bursts—monetary policy might better maintain low and stable consumer price inflation by leaning against a particular bubble even though it may mean that inflation deviates temporarily from its target. Such a strategy might reduce the risk that a crash in asset prices could lead to a recession and to inflation markedly below target in the longer run. The circumstances where this strategy is possible will be rare because economists are far from being able to determine consistently and reliably when leaning against a particular bubble is likely to do more harm than good. Housing-price bubbles should be a greater concern for Canadian monetary policy than equity-price bubbles, since rising housing prices are more likely to reflect excessively easy domestic credit conditions than are equity prices, which are largely determined in global markets. -
November 24, 2004
Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2004
Cover page
Bus Transportation Tokens and Tickets
The pieces illustrated on the cover range in size from 12 mm to 38 mm in diameter or width. They form part of the National Currency Collection, Bank of Canada.
Photography by Gord Carter, Ottawa
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November 23, 2004
Real Return Bonds: Monetary Policy Credibility and Short-Term Inflation Forecasting
The break-even inflation rate (BEIR) is calculated by comparing the yields on conventional and Real Return Bonds. Defined as the average rate of inflation that equates the expected returns on these two bonds, the BEIR has the potential to contain useful information about long-run inflation expectations. Yet the BEIR has been higher, on average, and more variable than survey measures of inflation expectations, which may be explained by the effects of premiums and distortions embedded in the BEIR. Because of the difficulty in accounting for these distortions, the BEIR should not be given a large weight as a measure of long-run inflation expectations at this time. However, as the Real Return Bond market continues to develop, the BEIR should become a more useful indicator of inflation expectations. At present, it demonstrates no clear advantage over survey measures and even past inflation rates in forecasting near-term inflation.