Matthieu Verstraete

Author

Bio


Staff analytical notes

Has wage setting changed in Canada? Evidence from the pre-pandemic 2020 Wage-Setting Survey

Staff Analytical Note 2022-10 David Amirault, Sarah Miller, Matthieu Verstraete
Just before the pandemic began, the Bank of Canada conducted the 2020 Wage-Setting Survey. The goal was to explore the unusual trend of subdued wage growth in 2018 and 2019 despite a tightening in the labour market. Although this wage puzzle was beginning to resolve at the time of the survey, results highlight changes in several factors that may have important impacts on wage dynamics.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Central bank research, Labour markets JEL Code(s): J, J3, J31, J32, J33, J6, J63

The Formation of House Price Expectations in Canada: Evidence from a Randomized Information Experiment

Staff Analytical Note 2019-24 Marc-André Gosselin, Mikael Khan, Matthieu Verstraete
We conduct a randomized information experiment leveraging the Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations. We provide causal evidence that respondents revise both their short- and medium-term expectations of future house price growth in a way that is consistent with observed short-term momentum in house prices. However, empirically, house price growth tends to revert to its mean in the medium term.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Financial stability, Housing JEL Code(s): C, C9, D, D8, D84, R, R2, R21

Personal Experiences and House Price Expectations: Evidence from the Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations

Staff Analytical Note 2018-8 Mikael Khan, Matthieu Verstraete
In this work, we use novel Canadian survey data to study how expectations of future changes in house prices are influenced by personal experiences. We find that recently experienced changes in local house prices are routinely extrapolated into expectations of year-ahead changes in national house prices.

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Staff working papers

Understanding Monetary Policy and its Effects: Evidence from Canadian Firms Using the Business Outlook Survey

Staff Working Paper 2017-24 Matthieu Verstraete, Lena Suchanek
This paper shows (i) that business sentiment, as captured by survey data, matters for monetary policy decisions in Canada, and (ii) how business perspectives are affected by monetary policy shocks. Measures of business sentiment (soft data) are shown to have systematic explanatory power for monetary policy decisions over and above typical Taylor rule variables.

Understanding Firms’ Inflation Expectations Using the Bank of Canada’s Business Outlook Survey

Staff Working Paper 2016-7 Simon Richards, Matthieu Verstraete
Inflation expectations are a key determinant of actual and future inflation and thus matter for the conduct of monetary policy. We study how firms form their inflation expectations using quarterly firm-level data from the Bank of Canada’s Business Outlook Survey, spanning the 2001 to 2015 period.

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Bank publications

Bank of Canada Review articles

November 13, 2014

Firm Strategy, Competitiveness and Productivity: The Case for Canada

At a time when the Bank is expecting a rotation of demand toward exports and investment, and transformative global trends are placing increasing emphasis on innovation, technology and organizational learning, an understanding of the competitiveness strategies of Canadian firms and the factors affecting them has become particularly relevant. This article summarizes findings from a Bank of Canada survey of 151 firms designed to extract signals on elements of firm strategy and organizational capital in order to help inform the macroeconomic outlook.

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