E52 - Monetary Policy

• Firm Inattention and the Efficacy of Monetary Policy: A Text-Based Approach

  Staff Working Paper 2022-3 Wenting Song, Samuel Stern

  How much attention do firms pay to macroeconomic news? Through a novel text-based measure, two facts emerge. First, attention is polarized. Most firms either never or always pay attention to economic conditions. Second, it is countercyclical. During recessions, more firms pay attention, and firms pay greater attention to macroeconomic news.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Inflation and prices, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): D, D8, D83, E, E4, E44, E5, E52

• Revisiting the Monetary Sovereignty Rationale for CBDCs

  Staff Discussion Paper 2021-17 Skylar Brooks

  One argument for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) is that without them, private and foreign digital monies could displace domestic currencies, threatening the central bank’s monetary policy and lender of last resort capabilities. I revisit this monetary sovereignty rationale and offer a wider view—one that considers a broader set of currency functions and captures important cross-country variation.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Debt management, Digital currencies and fintech, Exchange rate regimes, Financial stability, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E52, E58, H, H1, H12, H6, H63

• Monetary Policy Spillover to Small Open Economies: Is the Transmission Different under Low Interest Rates?

  Staff Working Paper 2021-62 Jin Cao, Valeriya Dinger, Tomás Gómez, Zuzana Gric, Martin Hodula, Alejandro Jara, Ragnar Juelsrud, Karolis Liaudinskas, Simona Malovaná, Yaz Terajima

  Does the transmission of monetary policy change when interest rates are low or negative? We shed light on this question by analyzing the international bank lending channels of monetary policy using regulatory data on banks from four small open economies: Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic and Norway.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, International topics, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E5, E52, E58, F, F3, F34, F4, F42, G, G2, G21, G28

• Optimal Monetary Policy According to HANK

  Staff Working Paper 2021-55 Sushant Acharya, Edouard Challe, Keshav Dogra

  We study optimal monetary policy in an analytically tractable Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian model. In the model, the central bank has an incentive to reduce consumption inequality in addition to keeping economic activity at its efficient level and inflation stable.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, E3, E30, E5, E52, E6, E62, E63

• What to Target? Insights from a Lab Experiment

  Staff Working Paper 2021-53 Isabelle Salle

  In a laboratory experiment, we ask participants to predict inflation using three different policy regimes: inflation targeting—with and without greater communication of the target—average inflation targeting and price level targeting. We use participants’ predictions to compare the level and stability of inflation under each regime.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation targets, Monetary policy communications, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): C, C9, C92, E, E3, E31, E5, E52, E7

• Fiscal and Monetary Stabilization Policy at the Zero Lower Bound: Consequences of Limited Foresight

  Staff Working Paper 2021-51 Michael Woodford, Yinxi Xie

  How do outcomes of monetary and fiscal stabilization policies at the zero lower bound change when decision makers have finite planning horizons in the economy? We explore the effects of limited foresight on policy tools and the interaction between monetary and fiscal policy.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Central bank research, Fiscal policy, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E6, E63, E7

• The impact of the Bank of Canada’s Government Bond Purchase Program

  Staff Analytical Note 2021-23 Rohan Arora, Sermin Gungor, Joe Nesrallah, Guillaume Ouellet Leblanc, Jonathan Witmer

  We assess the response of Government of Canada bond yields to the Bank of Canada’s initial announcement of the Government Bond Purchase Program (GBPP) as well as to the Bank’s later GBPP purchase operations.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Monetary policy, Monetary policy implementation, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E58, E6, E63

• More Money for Some: The Redistributive Effects of Open Market Operations

  Staff Working Paper 2021-46 Christian Bustamante

  I use a search-theoretic model of money to study how open market operations affect the conduct of monetary policy and what this means for households along the wealth distribution. In the model, households vary in the size and composition of their portfolios, which in turn implies that they may be unevenly affected by open market operations.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Monetary policy, Monetary policy implementation, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, E3, E32, E5, E52

• Payment Habits During COVID-19: Evidence from High-Frequency Transaction Data

  Staff Working Paper 2021-43 Tatjana Dahlhaus, Angelika Welte

  We examine how consumers have adjusted their payment habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. They seem to perform fewer transactions, spend more in each transaction, use less cash at the point of sale and withdraw cash from ATMs linked to their financial institution more often than from other ATMs.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Domestic demand and components, Payment clearing and settlement systems, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, C5, C55, D, D1, D12, E, E2, E21, E4, E42, E5, E52

• The Bank of Canada’s “Horse Race” of Alternative Monetary Policy Frameworks: Some Interim Results from Model Simulations

  Staff Discussion Paper 2021-13 José Dorich, Rhys R. Mendes, Yang Zhang

  Bank of Canada staff are running a “horse race” of alternative monetary policy frameworks in the lead-up to 2021 renewal of the Bank’s monetary policy framework. This paper summarizes some interim results of model simulations from their research.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Economic models, Inflation targets, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E2, E27, E3, E4, E5, E52, E58