E3 - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles

• A Structural Interpretation of the Recent Weakness in Business Investment

  Staff Analytical Note 2017-7 Russell Barnett, Rhys R. Mendes

  Since 2012, business investment growth has slowed considerably in advanced economies, averaging a little less than 2 per cent versus the 4 per cent growth rates experienced in the period leading up to crisis. Several recent studies have attributed a large part of the weakness in business investment to cyclical factors, including soft aggregate demand, and, to a lesser degree, heightened uncertainty and tighter financial conditions.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Domestic demand and components, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E2, E22, E3, E37

• Understanding the Cross‐Country Effects of US Technology Shocks

  Staff Working Paper 2017-23 Thuy Lan Nguyen, Wataru Miyamoto

  Business cycles are substantially correlated across countries. Yet most existing models are not able to generate substantial transmission through international trade. We show that the nature of such transmission depends fundamentally on the features determining the responsiveness of labor supply and labor demand to international relative prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E3, E30, F, F4, F41, F44, F6, F62

• A Three‐Frequency Dynamic Factor Model for Nowcasting Canadian Provincial GDP Growth

  Staff Discussion Paper 2017-8 Tony Chernis, Gabriella Velasco, Calista Cheung

  This paper estimates a three‐frequency dynamic factor model for nowcasting Canadian provincial gross domestic product (GDP). Canadian provincial GDP is released by Statistics Canada on an annual basis only, with a significant lag (11 months).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Econometric and statistical methods, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): C, C5, C53, E, E3, E32, E37, R, R1, R11

• Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity, Inflation and Unemployment: New Evidence Using Micro‐Level Data

  Staff Analytical Note 2017-6 Dany Brouillette, Natalia Kyui

  Recent evidence suggests that the extent of downward nominal wage rigidity (DNWR) in the Canadian labour market has risen following the 2008–09 recession (see Brouillette, Kostyshyna and Kyui 2016).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices, Labour markets JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, E3, E31, J, J3, J30

• Should Central Banks Worry About Nonlinearities of their Large-Scale Macroeconomic Models?

  Staff Working Paper 2017-21 Vadym Lepetyuk, Lilia Maliar, Serguei Maliar

  How wrong could policymakers be when using linearized solutions to their macroeconomic models instead of nonlinear global solutions?

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Econometric and statistical methods, Economic models JEL Code(s): C, C6, C61, C63, C68, E, E3, E31, E5, E52

• Volatility Risk and Economic Welfare

  Staff Working Paper 2017-20 Shaofeng Xu

  This paper examines the effects of time-varying volatility on welfare. I construct a tractable endogenous growth model with recursive preferences, stochastic volatility, and capital adjustment costs.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models JEL Code(s): E, E2, E3

• Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity Meets the Zero Lower Bound

  Staff Working Paper 2017-16 Robert Amano, Stefano Gnocchi

  We add downward nominal wage rigidity to a standard New Keynesian model with sticky prices and wages, where the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates is allowed to bind. We find that wage rigidity not only reduces the frequency of zero bound episodes but also mitigates the severity of corresponding recessions.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation targets, Labour markets, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, E3, E32, E5, E52

• April 2017 Annual Reassessment of Potential Output Growth in Canada

  Staff Analytical Note 2017-5 Andrew Agopsowicz, Bassirou Gueye, Natalia Kyui, Youngmin Park, Mohanad Salameh, Ben Tomlin

  This note summarizes the Bank of Canada’s annual reassessment of potential output growth, conducted for the April 2017 Monetary Policy Report. Potential output growth is projected to increase from 1.3 per cent in 2017 to 1.6 per cent by 2020.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Labour markets, Potential output, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E0, E00, E2, E22, E23, E24, E3, E37, E6

• Anticipated Technology Shocks: A Re‐Evaluation Using Cointegrated Technologies

  Staff Working Paper 2017-11 Joel Wagner

  Two approaches have been taken in the literature to evaluate the relative importance of news shocks as a source of business cycle volatility. The first is an empirical approach that performs a structural vector autoregression to assess the relative importance of news shocks, while the second is a structural-model-based approach.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32

• Assessing the Business Outlook Survey Indicator Using Real-Time Data

  Staff Discussion Paper 2017-5 Lise Pichette, Marie-Noëlle Robitaille

  Every quarter, the Bank of Canada conducts quarterly consultations with businesses across Canada, referred to as the Business Outlook Survey (BOS). A principal-component analysis conducted by Pichette and Rennison (2011) led to the development of the BOS indicator, which summarizes survey results and is used by the Bank as a gauge of overall business sentiment.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): C, C5, C53, C8, C82, E, E3, E37