Staff research

• Debt-Relief Programs and Money Left on the Table: Evidence from Canada's Response to COVID-19

  Staff Working Paper 2021-13 Jason Allen, Robert Clark, Shaoteng Li, Nicolas Vincent

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian financial institutions offered debt-relief programs to help borrowers cope with job losses and economic insecurity. We consider the low take-up rates for these programs and suggest that to be effective, such programs must be visible and easy to use.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Credit and credit aggregates, Debt management JEL Code(s): G, G3, G31, H, H5

• Complementarities Between Fiscal Policy and Monetary Policy—Literature Review

  Staff Discussion Paper 2021-4 Wei Dong, Geoffrey R. Dunbar, Christian Friedrich, Dmitry Matveev, Romanos Priftis, Lin Shao

  This paper surveys and summarizes the literature on how fiscal policy and monetary policy can complement each other in stabilizing economic activity.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Fiscal policy, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E58, E6, E62, E63

• Imperfect Banking Competition and Macroeconomic Volatility: A DSGE Framework

  Staff Working Paper 2021-12 Jiaqi Li

  How do banks adjust their loan rate markup in response to macroeconomic shocks?

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Financial institutions, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E4, E44, G, G2, G21, L, L1, L13

• A Generalized Endogenous Grid Method for Default Risk Models

  Staff Working Paper 2021-11 Youngsoo Jang, Soyoung Lee

  Models with default options are hard to solve. We propose an extension of the endogenous grid method that solves default risk models more efficiently and accurately.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Credit risk management JEL Code(s): C, C6, C63, E, E3, E37

• Monetary Policy Pass-Through with Central Bank Digital Currency

  Staff Working Paper 2021-10 Janet Hua Jiang, Yu Zhu

  Many central banks are considering issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). This would introduce a new policy tool—interest on CBDC. We investigate how this new tool would interact with traditional monetary policy tools, such as the interest on central bank reserves.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E5, E50, E52

• Cash and COVID-19: The Effects of Lifting Containment Measures on Cash Demand and Use

  Staff Discussion Paper 2021-3 Heng Chen, Walter Engert, Kim Huynh, Gradon Nicholls, Julia Zhu

  Using Bank Note Distribution System data on the demand for cash up to September 2020, we find that demand was strong. This is true even though cash use for payments declined early in the pandemic. When mobility restrictions and lockdown measures were eased, cash use for payments increased sharply but remained less popular than electronic methods of payment.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Central bank research, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Digital currencies and fintech, Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C1, C12, C9, E, E4, O, O5, O54
• February 28, 2021

  Research Update - February 2021

  This monthly newsletter features the latest research publications by Bank of Canada economists including external publications and working papers published on the Bank of Canada’s website.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Research newsletters

• The Bank of Canada COVID‑19 stringency index: measuring policy response across provinces

  Staff Analytical Note 2021-1 Calista Cheung, Jerome Lyons, Bethany Madsen, Sarah Miller, Saarah Sheikh

  We construct an index that systematically measures and tracks the stringency of government policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic across Canadian provinces. Researchers can use this stringency index to analyze how the pandemic is affecting the economy.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Domestic demand and components, Recent economic and financial developments, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): E, E2, E20, H, H7, I, I1, I18, R, R1

• COVID-19 Crisis: Lessons Learned for Future Policy Research

  Staff Discussion Paper 2021-2 Jean-Sébastien Fontaine, Corey Garriott, Jesse Johal, Jessica Lee, Andreas Uthemann

  One year later, we review the events that took place in Canadian fixed-income markets at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis and propose potential policy research questions for future work.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Financial markets, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): D, D4, D47, E, E4, E41, E5, G, G0, G01, G1, G14, G2, G20, G21, G23

• Market Concentration and Uniform Pricing: Evidence from Bank Mergers

  Staff Working Paper 2021-9 João Granja, Nuno Paixão

  We show that US banks price deposits almost uniformly across their branches and that this pricing practice is more important than increases in local market concentration in explaining the deposit rate dynamics following bank mergers.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial system regulation and policies, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D4, G, G2, G20, G21, G28, G3, G34, L, L1, L11