Staff research

• Settlement Balances Deconstructed

  Staff Discussion Paper 2022-13 Parnell Chu, Grahame Johnson, Scott Kinnear, Karen McGuinness, Matthew McNeely

  Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, public interest in the Bank’s balance sheet and, more specifically, the size of settlement balances, has grown. This paper deconstructs the concept of settlement balances and provides some context on their history, current state and possible future evolution.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Financial markets, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): E, E5, E58, E59, E6, G, G0, G01

• Foreign Exchange Interventions: The Long and the Short of It

  Staff Working Paper 2022-25 Patrick Alexander, Sami Alpanda, Serdar Kabaca

  This paper studies the effects of foreign exchange (FX) interventions in a two-region model where governments issue both short- and long-term bonds. We find that the term premium channel dominates the trade balance channel in our calibrated model. As a result, the conventional beggar-thy-neighbor effects of interventions are overturned.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Exchange rate regimes, Exchange rates, Foreign reserves management, International financial markets, International topics JEL Code(s): F, F3, F31, F33, F4, F41
• May 31, 2022

  Research Update - May 2022

  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

• How well can large banks in Canada withstand a severe economic downturn?

  Staff Analytical Note 2022-6 Andisheh (Andy) Danaee, Harsimran Grewal, Brad Howell, Guillaume Ouellet Leblanc, Xuezhi Liu, Mayur Patel, Xiangjin Shen

  We examine the potential impacts of a severe economic shock on the resilience of major banks in Canada. We find these banks would suffer significant financial losses but nevertheless remain resilient. This underscores the role well-capitalized banks and sound underwriting practices play in supporting economic activity in a downturn.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial stability JEL Code(s): E, E2, E27, E3, E37, E4, E44, G, G1, G2, G21, G23

• Financial Intermediaries and the Macroeconomy: Evidence from a High-Frequency Identification

  Staff Working Paper 2022-24 Pablo Ottonello, Wenting Song

  We provide empirical evidence of effects to the aggregate economy from surprises about financial intermediaries’ net worth based on a high-frequency identification strategy. We estimate that news of a 1% decline in intermediaries’ net worth leads to a 0.2%–0.4% decrease in the market value of nonfinancial firms.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Business fluctuations and cycles, Credit and credit aggregates, Financial institutions, Financial markets, Financial system regulation and policies, Monetary and financial indicators JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E4, E44, E5, E51, G, G0, G01, G1, G12, G2, G21, G23, G24, G3, G32

• Transmission of Cyber Risk Through the Canadian Wholesale Payment System

  Staff Working Paper 2022-23 Anneke Kosse, Zhentong Lu

  This paper studies how the impact of a cyber attack that paralyzes one or multiple banks' ability to send payments would transmit to other banks through the Canadian wholesale payment system. Based on historical payment data, we simulate a wide range of scenarios and evaluate the total payment disruption in the system.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial stability, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C4, C49, E, E4, E42, E47, G, G2, G21

• Nonparametric Identification of Incomplete Information Discrete Games with Non-equilibrium Behaviors

  Staff Working Paper 2022-22 Erhao Xie

  This paper jointly relaxes two assumptions in the literature that estimates games. These two assumptions are the parametric restriction on the model primitives and the restriction of equilibrium behaviors. Without imposing the above two assumptions, this paper identifies the primitives of the game.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C5, C57

• Expectation-Driven Term Structure of Equity and Bond Yields

  Staff Working Paper 2022-21 Ming Zeng, Guihai Zhao

  Recent findings on the term structure of equity and bond yields pose serious challenges to existing models of equilibrium asset pricing. This paper presents a new equilibrium model of subjective expectations to explain the joint historical dynamics of equity and bond yields (and their yield spreads).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, G, G0, G00, G1, G12

• Nowcasting Canadian GDP with Density Combinations

  Staff Discussion Paper 2022-12 Tony Chernis, Taylor Webley

  We present a tool for creating density nowcasts for Canadian real GDP growth. We demonstrate that the combined densities are a reliable and accurate tool for assessing the state of the economy and risks to the outlook.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C5, C52, C53, E, E3, E7

• Resilience of bank liquidity ratios in the presence of a central bank digital currency

  Staff Analytical Note 2022-5 Alissa Gorelova, Bena Lands, Maria teNyenhuis

  Could Canadian banks continue to meet their regulatory liquidity requirements after the introduction of a cash-like retail central bank digital currency (CBDC)? We conduct a hypothetical exercise to estimate how a CBDC could affect bank liquidity by increasing the run-off rates of transactional retail deposits under four increasingly severe scenarios.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Central bank research, Digital currencies and fintech, Econometric and statistical methods, Financial institutions, Financial stability JEL Code(s): C, E, E4, G, G2, G21, O, O3, O33