Posts
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August 16, 2012
Measurement Bias in the Canadian Consumer Price Index: An Update
The consumer price index (CPI) is the most commonly used measure to track changes in the overall level of prices. Since it departs from a true cost-of-living index, the CPI is subject to four types of measurement bias—commodity substitution, outlet substitution, new goods and quality adjustment. The author updates previous Bank of Canada estimates of measurement bias in the Canadian CPI by examining these four sources of potential bias. He finds the total measurement bias over the 2005–11 period to be about 0.5 percentage point per year, consistent with the Bank’s earlier findings. Slightly more than half of this bias is caused by the fixed nature of the CPI basket of goods and services. -
Strategic Uncertainty in Financial Markets: Evidence from a Consensus Pricing Service
We look at the informational content of consensus pricing in opaque over-the-counter markets. We show that the availability of price data informs participants mainly about other participants’ valuations, rather than about the value of a financial security. -
May 13, 2021
The benefits of an inclusive economy
Governor Tiff Macklem talks about diversity and inclusion are important for the Bank of Canada, for the economics and finance profession, and for the Canadian economy. -
March 28, 2005
The Thiessen Lectures
Lectures delivered by Gordon G. Thiessen, Governor of the Bank of Canada 1994 to 2001 -
Allocative Efficiency and the Productivity Slowdown
In our analysis of the US productivity slowdown in the 1970s and 2000s, we find that a significant portion of this deceleration can be attributed to a lack of improvement in allocative efficiency across sectors. Our analysis further identifies increased sector-level volatility as a major contributor to this lack of improvement in allocative efficiency. -
March 28, 2014
Annual Report 2013
2013 proved to be a challenging year for the Bank of Canada. Inflation continued to drift below target, and the economy failed to move onto a more sustainable track. The 2013 Annual Report highlights key achievements over the year, describes the Bank’s corporate governance, and presents the financial statements in conjunction with Management’s Discussion and Analysis. -
Les effets réels du cours des actions sur la consommation
During the nineties, stock prices increased remarkably. The number of households owning stocks also rose considerably. If stock market wealth has an effect on consumers' decisions, then the rise in equity prices could have contributed to the growth in consumption in recent years. -
June 15, 2007
Interpreting Canada's Productivity Performance in the Past Decade: Lessons from Recent Research
Dion examines the evolution of Canadian productivity since the mid-1990s, using the United States as a benchmark. During this period, trend productivity growth in Canada remained modest, whereas the U.S. witnessed a strong resurgence. Among the factors identified as potential root causes of Canada's lower productivity performance are a lower investment in information and communications technology, reallocation and adjustment costs associated with large relative price movements, and a weak demand for innovation. -
August 14, 1999
Passive Money, Active Money, and Monetary Policy
This article by the Bank's visiting economist examines the role of money in the transmission of monetary policy. Professor Laidler argues against the view of money as a passive variable that reacts to changes in prices, output, and interest rates but has no direct causative effect on them. He maintains that the empirical evidence supports the view of money playing an active role in the transmission mechanism. While he agrees that individual monetary aggregates can be difficult to read because of instabilities in the demand-for-money function, he argues that monetary aggregates, particularly those relating to transactions money, should have a more significant place in the hierarchy of policy variables that the Bank considers when formulating monetary policy.