R - Urbanuralegionaleal Estate, and Transportation Economics

• Fundamental Drivers of Existing Home Sales in Canada

  Staff Discussion Paper 2018-16 Taylor Webley

  Existing home sales’ share of Canada’s economic pie has been rising in recent years, and variation around this trend has resulted in outsized contributions to changes in real gross domestic product (GDP). In this context, we use a cointegration framework to estimate the level of resale activity across the Canadian provinces that is supported by fundamentals—namely, full-time employment, housing affordability and migration flows—to help look through the volatility.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Economic models, Housing JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, C23, E, E2, E27, R, R2, R21

• The Propagation of Regional Shocks in Housing Markets: Evidence from Oil Price Shocks in Canada

  Staff Working Paper 2018-56 Lutz Kilian, Xiaoqing Zhou

  How do global oil price shocks spread through Canada’s economy? With Canada’s regionally diverse economy in mind, we explore the implications of oil price shocks for Canadian housing markets and regional economies. We show that the belief that oil price shocks only matter in oil-rich regions is false.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Housing, International topics, Labour markets, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): F, F4, F43, Q, Q3, Q33, Q4, Q43, R, R1, R12, R3, R31

• Housing Price Network Effects from Public Transit Investment: Evidence from Vancouver

  Staff Working Paper 2018-18 Alex Chernoff, Andrea Craig

  In this paper, we estimate the effect on housing prices of the expansion of the Vancouver SkyTrain rapid transit network during the period 2001–11. We extend the canonical residential sorting equilibrium framework to include commuting time in the household utility function.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Economic models, Housing JEL Code(s): H, H4, H41, R, R2, R21, R4, R41

• Firm Heterogeneity, Technological Adoption, and Urbanization: Theory and Measurement

  Staff Working Paper 2017-27 Alex Chernoff

  This paper develops a model of firm heterogeneity, technological adoption, and urbanization. In the model, welfare is measured by household real income, and urbanization is measured by population density. I use the model to derive statistics that measure the effect of a new technology on productivity, welfare, and urbanization.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Productivity, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): N, N6, N61, O, O1, O14, R, R1, R13

• 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

• Can the Common-Factor Hypothesis Explain the Observed Housing Wealth Effect?

  Staff Working Paper 2016-62 Narayan Bulusu, Jefferson Duarte, Carles Vergara-Alert

  The common-factor hypothesis is one possible explanation for the housing wealth effect. Under this hypothesis, house price appreciation is related to changes in consumption as long as the available proxies for the common driver of housing and non-housing demand are noisy and housing supply is not perfectly elastic.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Housing JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, R, R3, R31

• Housing and Tax-Deferred Retirement Accounts

  Staff Working Paper 2016-24 Anson T. Y. Ho, Jie Zhou

  Assets in tax-deferred retirement accounts (TDA) and housing are two major components of household portfolios. In this paper, we develop a life-cycle model to examine the interaction between households’ use of TDA and their housing decisions.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Housing JEL Code(s): C, C6, C61, D, D1, D14, D9, D91, E, E2, E21, H, H2, H24, R, R2, R21

• Canadian Labour Market Dispersion: Mind the (Shrinking) Gap

  Staff Analytical Note 2016-3 David Amirault, Naveen Rai

  Shocks to a currency area can and often do have asymmetric impacts on its regions that, in the absence of perfect labour mobility, lead to gaps in relative labour market performance. Witness, for example, the effects of the 2008/09 recession and subsequent financial crisis in Europe on the dispersion of employment rates across the euro area – and to a lesser extent the United States.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Labour markets, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): J, J0, J01, R, R2, R23

• The Evolution of the Chinese Housing Market and Its Impact on Base Metal Prices

  Staff Discussion Paper 2016-7 Mark Kruger, Kun Mo, Benjamin Sawatzky

  The Chinese housing market has grown rapidly following its liberalization in the 1990s, generating significant economic activity and demand for base metals. In this paper, we discuss the evolution of the Chinese housing market and quantify its importance for the overall Chinese economy and its linkages to base metal prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): International topics JEL Code(s): Q, Q3, Q31, R, R3, R31

• Credit Conditions and Consumption, House Prices and Debt: What Makes Canada Different?

  Staff Working Paper 2015-40 John Muellbauer, Pierre St-Amant, David Williams

  There is widespread agreement that, in the United States, higher house prices raise consumption via collateral or possibly wealth effects. The presence of similar channels in Canada would have important implications for monetary policy transmission.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Domestic demand and components, Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, Housing, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E0, E02, E2, E21, E4, E44, G, G2, G21, R, R2, R21, R3, R31