Staff research

• Unit-Root Tests and Excess Returns

  Staff Working Paper 1996-10 Marie-Josée Godbout, Simon van Norden

  Several recent papers have presented evidence from foreign exchange and other markets suggesting that the log of excess returns can be characterized as first-order integrated processes (I(1)). This contrasts sharply with the "conventional" wisdom that log prices are integrated of order one I(1) and that log returns should therefore be integrated of order zero I(0), and even more sharply with the view that past returns have no ability to predict future returns (weak market efficiency).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C1, C12, F, F3, F31

• Does Inflation Uncertainty Vary with the Level of Inflation?

  Staff Working Paper 1996-9 Allan Crawford, Marcel Kasumovich

  The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that inflation uncertainty increases at higher levels of inflation. Our analysis is based on the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) class of models, which allow the conditional variance of the error term to be time-varying. Since this variance is a proxy for inflation uncertainty, a positive relationship between the conditional variance and inflation would be interpreted as evidence that inflation uncertainty increases with the level of inflation.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): C, C5, C52, E, E3, E31

• Interpreting Money-Supply and Interest-Rate Shocks as Monetary-Policy Shocks

  Staff Working Paper 1996-8 Marcel Kasumovich

  In this paper two shocks are analysed using Canadian data: a money-supply shock ("M-shock") and an interest-rate shock ("R-shock"). Money-supply shocks are derived using long-run restrictions based on long-run propositions of monetary theory. Thus, an M-shock is represented by an orthogonalized innovation in the trend shared by money and prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary and financial indicators, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E5, E51

• Excess Volatility and Speculative Bubbles in the Canadian Dollar: Real or Imagined?

  Technical Report No. 76 John Murray, Simon van Norden, Robert Vigfusson

  Greater intervention by the public sector is often proposed as a solution to the increased speculation and excessive price volatility thought to characterize today's competitive world financial system.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Exchange rates JEL Code(s): C, C4, C40, F, F3, F31

• An Econometric Examination of the Trend Unemployment Rate in Canada

  Staff Working Paper 1996-7 Denise Côté, Doug Hostland

  This paper attempts to identify the trend unemployment rate, an empirical concept, using cointegration theory. The authors examine whether there is a cointegrating relationship between the observed unemployment rate and various structural factors, focussing neither on the non-accelerating-inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) nor on the natural rate of unemployment, but rather on the trend unemployment rate, which they define in terms of cointegration.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24

• The Bank of Canada's New Quarterly Projection Model, Part 3. The Dynamic Model: QPM

  Technical Report No. 75 Donald Coletti, Benjamin Hunt, David Rose, Robert Tetlow

  The Bank of Canada's new Quarterly Projection Model, QPM, combines the short-term dynamic properties necessary to support regular economic projections with the consistent behavioural structure necessary for policy analysis.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): C, C5, C53, E, E1, E17

• Provincial Credit Ratings in Canada: An Ordered Probit Analysis

  Staff Working Paper 1996-6 Stella Cheung

  The author estimates the relationship between the provincial credit ratings, as assessed by Standard & Poor's, and a number of economic variables, using the ordered probit methodology. All the variables in her estimation prove to be significant. In particular, she finds that downgrades take place at almost the same speed at different levels of the debt-to-GDP ratio, based on a pooled sample of nine provinces.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets JEL Code(s): H, H6, H63

• A Distant-Early-Warning Model of Inflation Based on M1 Disequilibria

  Staff Working Paper 1996-5 Joseph Atta-Mensah, Walter Engert, Scott Hendry, Jamie Armour

  A vector error-correction model (VECM) that forecasts inflation between the current quarter and eight quarters ahead is found to provide significant leading information about inflation. The model focusses on the effects of deviations of M1 from its long-run demand but also includes, among other things, the influence of the exchange rate, a simple measure of the output gap and past prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Monetary aggregates, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E3, E37, E5, E52

• Overnight Rate Innovations as a Measure of Monetary Policy Shocks in Vector Autoregressions

  Staff Working Paper 1996-4 Walter Engert, Ben Fung, Jamie Armour

  The authors examine the Bank of Canada's overnight rate as a measure of monetary policy in vector autoregression (VAR) models. Since the time series of the Bank's current measure of the overnight rate begins only in 1971, the authors splice it to day loan rate observations to obtain a sufficiently long period of data.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Monetary and financial indicators JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52

• Regime-Switching Models: A Guide to the Bank of Canada Gauss Procedures

  Staff Working Paper 1996-3 Simon van Norden, Robert Vigfusson

  This paper is a user's guide to a set of Gauss procedures developed at the Bank of Canada for estimating regime-switching models.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C6, C63