Staff working papers

• Electronic Transactions as High-Frequency Indicators of Economic Activity

  Staff Working Paper 2007-58 John Galbraith, Greg Tkacz

  Since the advent of standard national accounts data over 60 years ago, economists have traditionally relied on monthly or quarterly data supplied by central statistical agencies for macroeconomic modelling and forecasting.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles JEL Code(s): E, E1, E17, E2, E27, E6, E66

• Uncertainty and the Specificity of Human Capital

  Staff Working Paper 2007-57 Martin Gervais, Igor Livshits, Césaire Meh

  This paper studies the choice between general and specific human capital. A trade-off arises because general human capital, while less productive, can easily be reallocated across firms.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): D, D9, D92, J, J2, J24, J4, J41, J6, J62

• Estimation and Inference by the Method of Projection Minimum Distance

  Staff Working Paper 2007-56 Òscar Jordà, Sharon Kozicki

  A covariance-stationary vector of variables has a Wold representation whose coefficients can be semi-parametrically estimated by local projections (Jordà, 2005). Substituting the Wold representations for variables in model expressions generates restrictions that can be used by the method of minimum distance to estimate model parameters.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C3, C32, C5, C53, E, E4, E47

• The Impact of Emerging Asia on Commodity Prices

  Staff Working Paper 2007-55 Sylvie Morin, Calista Cheung

  Over the past 5 years, real energy and non-energy commodity prices have trended sharply higher. These relative price movements have had important implications for inflation and economic activity in both Canada and the rest of the world. China has accounted for the bulk of incremental demand for oil and many base metals over this period.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E3, F, F4, O, O1, O19, Q, Q1, Q11

• Expenditure-Switching Effect and the Choice of Exchange Rate Regime

  Staff Working Paper 2007-54 Wei Dong

  The author investigates the quantitative importance of the expenditure-switching effect by developing and estimating a structural sticky-price model nesting both producer currency pricing (PCP) and local currency pricing (LCP) settings.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rate regimes, International topics JEL Code(s): F, F3, F4

• Testing Uncovered Interest Parity: A Continuous-Time Approach

  Staff Working Paper 2007-53 Antonio Diez de los Rios, Enrique Sentana

  Nowadays researchers can choose the sampling frequency of exchange rates and interest rates.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Exchange rates JEL Code(s): F, F3, F31, G, G1, G15

• Where Does Price Discovery Occur in FX Markets?

  Staff Working Paper 2007-52 Chris D'Souza

  Trades in foreign exchange markets are initiated around the world and around the clock. This study illustrates that trades are more informative when initiated in a local country or in major foreign exchange centers like London and New York.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rates, Financial markets, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): F, F3, F31, G, G1, G15

• Rediscounting Under Aggregate Risk with Moral Hazard

  Staff Working Paper 2007-51 James Chapman, Antoine Martin

  Freeman (1999) proposes a model in which discount window lending and open market operations have different effects. This is important because in most of the literature, these policies are indistinguishable.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Financial markets, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E5, E58, G, G2, G20

• Do Firms Adjust Toward a Target Leverage Level?

  Staff Working Paper 2007-50 Zhaoxia Xu

  This paper studies capital structure adjustment mechanisms of firms that experience substantial changes in leverage.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, International topics JEL Code(s): G, G3, G32

• Examining Simple Joint Macroeconomic and Term-Structure Models: A Practitioner's Perspective

  Staff Working Paper 2007-49 David Bolder, Shudan Liu

  The primary objective of this paper is to compare a variety of joint models of the term structure of interest rates and the macroeconomy.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): C, C0, C6, E, E4, G, G1