E5 - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit

• Cashless Bank Branches in Canada

  Staff Analytical Note 2019-29 Walter Engert, Ben Fung

  Cashless or tellerless bank branches have proliferated in several countries in recent years. In a cashless bank branch, teller or counter services such as cash withdrawals, deposits and cheque-cashing are not available.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Financial services JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E51

• The Economics of Cryptocurrencies—Bitcoin and Beyond

  Staff Working Paper 2019-40 Jonathan Chiu, Thorsten Koeppl

  Since the creation of Bitcoin in 2009, over 2,000 cryptocurrencies have been issued. We evaluate how well a cryptocurrency functions as a payment system.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Monetary policy, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E5, L, L5

• A Comprehensive Evaluation of Measures of Core Inflation in Canada: An Update

  Staff Discussion Paper 2019-9 Helen Lao, Ceciline Steyn

  We provide an updated evaluation of the value of various measures of core inflation that could be used in the conduct of monetary policy. We find that the Bank of Canada’s current preferred measures of core inflation—CPI-trim, CPI-median and CPI-common—continue to outperform alternative core measures across a range of criteria.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E5, E52

• Financial Frictions, Durable Goods and Monetary Policy

  Staff Working Paper 2019-31 Ugochi Emenogu, Leo Michelis

  Financial frictions affect how much consumers spend on durable and non-durable goods. Borrowers can face both loan-to-value (LTV) constraints and payment-to-income (PTI) constraints.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial system regulation and policies, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E5, E52

• A Tale of Two Countries: Cash Demand in Canada and Sweden

  Staff Discussion Paper 2019-7 Walter Engert, Ben Fung, Björn Segendorf

  Cash use for payments has been steadily decreasing in many countries, including Canada and Sweden. This might suggest an evolution toward a cashless society. But in Canada, cash in circulation relative to GDP has been stable for decades and has even increased in recent years. By contrast, the cash-to-GDP ratio in Sweden has been falling steadily. What has caused this difference? Are there lessons to be learned from comparing the Canadian and Swedish experiences?

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Financial services, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5

• An Application of Shapley Value Cost Allocation to Liquidity Savings Mechanisms

  Staff Working Paper 2019-26 Rodney J. Garratt

  Liquidity demands in real-time gross settlement payment systems can be enormous. To reduce the liquidity requirement, central banks around the world have implemented liquidity savings mechanisms (LSMs).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C7, C72, E, E5, E58

• Explaining Unusual Cash Patterns in 2018

  Staff Analytical Note 2019-22 Walter Engert, Ben Fung, Jozsef Molnar, Gradon Nicholls

  There was an unusually large decline of bank notes in circulation in October 2018. Some have argued that this was due to the legalization of cannabis in Canada in mid-October.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Financial services JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E58

• The Effects of Inflation Targeting for Financial Development

  Staff Analytical Note 2019-21 Geoffrey R. Dunbar, Amy (Qijia) Li

  The adoption of inflation targeting (IT) by central banks leads to an increase of 10 to 20 percent in measures of financial development, with a lag. We also find evidence that the financial sector benefits of IT adoption were higher for early-adopting central banks.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Financial institutions, Inflation targets, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E5, E58

• Central Bank Communication That Works: Lessons from Lab Experiments

  Staff Working Paper 2019-21 Oleksiy Kryvtsov, Luba Petersen

  We use controlled laboratory experiments to test the causal effects of central bank communication on economic expectations and to distinguish the underlying mechanisms of those effects. In an experiment where subjects learn to forecast economic variables, we find that central bank communication has a stabilizing effect on individual and aggregate outcomes and that the size of the effect varies with the type of communication.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary policy implementation, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): C, C9, D, D8, D84, E, E3, E5, E52

• Bank Market Power and Central Bank Digital Currency: Theory and Quantitative Assessment

  Staff Working Paper 2019-20 Jonathan Chiu, Mohammad Davoodalhosseini, Janet Hua Jiang, Yu Zhu

  We show that issuing a deposit-like central bank digital currency (CBDC) with a proper interest rate would encourage banks to pay higher interest to keep their customers. Banks would then attract more deposits and offer more loans. Hence, a CBDC would not necessarily crowd out private banking.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Market structure and pricing, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E5, E50, E58