E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics

• Monetary Policy Lag, Zero Lower Bound, and Inflation Targeting

  Staff Working Paper 2009-2 Shin-Ichi Nishiyama

  Although the concept of monetary policy lag has historical roots deep in the monetary economics literature, relatively little attention has been paid to the idea. In this paper, we build on Svensson's (1997) inflation targeting framework by explicitly taking into account the lagged effect of monetary policy and characterize the optimal monetary policy reaction function both in the absence and in the presence of the zero lower bound on the nominal interest rate.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation targets, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): C, C6, C63, E, E5, E52, E58

• Financial Intermediation, Liquidity and Inflation

  Staff Working Paper 2008-49 Jonathan Chiu, Césaire Meh

  This paper develops a search-theoretic model to study the interaction between banking and monetary policy and how this interaction affects the allocation and welfare. Regarding how banking affects the welfare costs of inflation: First, we find that, with banking, inflation generates smaller welfare costs.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E5, E50

• McCallum Rules, Exchange Rates, and the Term Structure of Interest Rates

  Staff Working Paper 2008-43 Antonio Diez de los Rios

  McCallum (1994a) proposes a monetary rule where policymakers have some tendency to resist rapid changes in exchange rates to explain the forward premium puzzle.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rates, Interest rates, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, F, F3, F31, G, G1, G12, G15

• Which Bank is the "Central" Bank? An Application of Markov Theory to the Canadian Large Value Transfer System

  Staff Working Paper 2008-42 Morten Bech, James Chapman, Rodney J. Garratt

  We use a method similar to Google's PageRank procedure to rank banks in the Canadian Large Value Transfer System (LVTS). Along the way we obtain estimates of the payment processing speeds for the individual banks.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C1, C11, E, E5, E50, G, G2, G20

• Price Level Targeting in a Small Open Economy with Financial Frictions: Welfare Analysis

  Staff Working Paper 2008-40 Ali Dib, Caterina Mendicino, Yahong Zhang

  How important are the benefits of low price-level uncertainty? This paper explores the desirability of price-level path targeting in an estimated DSGE model fit to Canadian data. The policy implications are based on social welfare evaluations.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial stability, Inflation and prices, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E32, E5, E52

• Import Price Dynamics in Major Advanced Economies and Heterogeneity in Exchange Rate Pass-Through

  Staff Working Paper 2008-39 Stephane Dees, Matthias Burgert, Nicolas Parent

  This paper aims at showing heterogeneity in the degree of exchange rate pass-through to import prices in major advanced economies at three different levels: 1) across destination markets; 2) across types of exporters (distinguishing developed economy from emerging economy exporters); and 3) over time.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rates, Inflation and prices JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, F, F3, F4, F41

• A Model of Costly Capital Reallocation and Aggregate Productivity

  Staff Working Paper 2008-38 Shutao Cao

  The author studies the effects of capital reallocation (the flow of productive capital across firms and establishments mainly through changes in ownership) on aggregate labour productivity. Capital reallocation is an important activity in the United States: on average, its total value is 3–4 per cent of U.S. GDP.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E2, E22, L, L1, L16

• Adopting Price-Level Targeting under Imperfect Credibility: An Update

  Staff Working Paper 2008-37 Oleksiy Kryvtsov, Malik Shukayev, Alexander Ueberfeldt

  This paper measures the welfare gains of switching from inflation-targeting to price-level targeting under imperfect credibility. Vestin (2006) shows that when the monetary authority cannot commit to future policy, price-level targeting yields higher welfare than inflation targeting.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Credibility, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E5, E52

• The Role of Bank Capital in the Propagation of Shocks

  Staff Working Paper 2008-36 Césaire Meh, Kevin Moran

  Recent events in financial markets have underlined the importance of analyzing the link between the financial health of banks and real economic activity. This paper contributes to this analysis by constructing a dynamic general equilibrium model in which the balance sheet of banks affects the propagation of shocks.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial system regulation and policies, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E5, E52, G, G2, G21

• Globalization and Inflation: The Role of China

  Staff Working Paper 2008-35 Denise Côté, Carlos De Resende

  In this paper, we develop a theoretical model which identifies four channels–import prices, competition with domestic suppliers and workers, and commodity prices–through which price- and wage-setting conditions in country j may affect inflation in country i.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): International topics JEL Code(s): E, E2, E22, E3, E32, E4, E44