Asset pricing

• Estimating the Policy Rule from Money Market Rates when Target Rate Changes Are Lumpy

  Staff Working Paper 2012-41 Jean-Sébastien Fontaine

  Most central banks effect changes to their target or policy rate in discrete increments (e.g., multiples of 0.25%) following public announcements on scheduled dates. Still, for most applications, researchers rely on the assumption that the policy rate changes linearly with economic conditions and they do not distinguish between dates with and without scheduled announcements.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E44, E47, G, G1, G12, G13

• Forecasting Inflation and the Inflation Risk Premiums Using Nominal Yields

  Staff Working Paper 2012-37 Bruno Feunou, Jean-Sébastien Fontaine

  We provide a decomposition of nominal yields into real yields, expectations of future inflation and inflation risk premiums when real bonds or inflation swaps are unavailable or unreliable due to their relative illiquidity.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E47, G, G1, G12

• The Economic Value of Realized Volatility: Using High-Frequency Returns for Option Valuation

  Staff Working Paper 2012-34 Peter Christoffersen, Bruno Feunou, Kris Jacobs, Nour Meddahi

  Many studies have documented that daily realized volatility estimates based on intraday returns provide volatility forecasts that are superior to forecasts constructed from daily returns only. We investigate whether these forecasting improvements translate into economic value added.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): G, G1, G13

• Systematic Risk, Debt Maturity and the Term Structure of Credit Spreads

  Staff Working Paper 2012-27 Hui Chen, Yu Xu, Jun Yang

  We build a dynamic capital structure model to study the link between systematic risk exposure and debt maturity, as well as their joint impact on the term structure of credit spreads. Our model allows for time variation and lumpiness in the maturity structure. Relative to short-term debt, long-term debt is less prone to rollover risks, but its illiquidity raises the costs of financing.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Debt management JEL Code(s): G, G3, G32, G33
• August 16, 2012

  Global Risk Premiums and the Transmission of Monetary Policy

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2012 Gregory Bauer, Antonio Diez de los Rios

  An important channel in the transmission of monetary policy is the relationship between the short-term policy rate and long-term interest rates. Using a new term-structure model, the authors show that the variation in long-term interest rates over time consists of two components: one representing investor expectations of future policy rates, and another reflecting a term-structure risk premium that compensates investors for holding a risky asset. The time variation in the term-structure risk premium is countercyclical and largely determined by global macroeconomic conditions. As a result, long-term rates are pushed up during recessions and down during times of expansion. This is an important phenomenon that central banks need to take into account when using short-term rates as a policy tool.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial markets, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, F, F3, F31, G, G1, G12, G15

• The U.S.-Dollar Supranational Zero-Coupon Curve

  Staff Discussion Paper 2012-5 Francisco Rivadeneyra

  The author describes the construction of the U.S.-dollar-denominated zero-coupon curve for the supranational asset class from 1995 to 2010. He uses yield data from a crosssection of bonds issued by AAA-rated supranational entities to fit the Svensson (1995) term-structure model.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial markets JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12, G15

• House Price Dynamics: Fundamentals and Expectations

  Staff Working Paper 2012-12 Eleonora Granziera, Sharon Kozicki

  We investigate whether expectations that are not fully rational have the potential to explain the evolution of house prices and the price-to-rent ratio in the United States.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Domestic demand and components, Economic models JEL Code(s): E, E3, E6, E65, R, R2, R21

• Risk Premium, Variance Premium and the Maturity Structure of Uncertainty

  Staff Working Paper 2012-11 Bruno Feunou, Jean-Sébastien Fontaine, Abderrahim Taamouti, Roméo Tedongap

  Expected returns vary when investors face time-varying investment opportunities. Long-run risk models (Bansal and Yaron 2004) and no-arbitrage affine models (Duffie, Pan, and Singleton 2000) emphasize sources of risk that are not observable to the econometrician.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial services JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12, G13

• Central Bank Communication or the Media’s Interpretation: What Moves Markets?

  Staff Working Paper 2012-9 Scott Hendry

  The goal of this paper is to investigate what type of information from Bank of Canada communication statements or the market commentary based on these statements has a significant effect on the volatility or level of returns in a short-term interest rate market.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial markets JEL Code(s): E, E5, E58, G, G1, G14
• February 23, 2012

  Medium-Term Fluctuations in Canadian House Prices

  Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2011-2012 Brian Peterson, Yi Zheng

  This article draws on theory and empirical evidence to examine a number of factors behind movements in Canadian house prices. It begins with an overview of the movements in house prices in Canada, using regional data to highlight factors that influence prices over the long run. It then turns to the central theme, that there are medium-run movements in prices not accounted for by long-run factors. Drawing on recent Bank of Canada research, the article discusses several factors behind these medium-run movements, including interest rates, expected price appreciation and market liquidity. The article concludes by identifying areas for future research that would further our understanding of fluctuations in house prices.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Asset pricing, Econometric and statistical methods, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): R, R2, R21, R3, R31