Bio

Xu Zhang is a Principal Researcher in the Financial Markets Department at the Bank of Canada. She is a macroeconomist whose primary research focuses on the intersection of macroeconomics and finance, both theoretical and empirical. She looks at how central bank monetary policy affects financial market participants - households and financial intermediaries - and shed new light on underlying economic mechanisms linking financial markets with the real economy.

Staff discussion papers

Assessing the Impact of the Bank of Canada’s Government Bond Purchases

Staff Discussion Paper 2024-5 Chinara Azizova, Jonathan Witmer, Xu Zhang
In March 2020, the Bank of Canada implemented the Government of Canada Bond Purchase Program, eventually purchasing approximately $340 billion of government bonds. In this paper, we analyze the impact of this program on financial market prices and yields as well as on GDP and inflation.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial markets, Financial system regulation and policies, Inflation and prices, Monetary policy, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E58, G, G2, G21, G28

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Staff working papers

Extreme Weather and Low-Income Household Finance: Evidence from Payday Loans

Staff Working Paper 2024-1 Shihan Xie, Victoria Wenxin Xie, Xu Zhang
This paper explores the impact of extreme weather exposures on the financial outcomes of low-income households. Our findings highlight the heightened financial vulnerability of low-income households to environmental shocks and underscore the need for targeted policies.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Climate change, Credit and credit aggregates JEL Code(s): G, G5, Q, Q5, Q54

Monetary Policy and Racial Inequality in Housing Markets: A Study of 140 US Metropolitan Areas

Staff Working Paper 2023-62 Qi Li, Xu Zhang
We find that minority households see greater declines in housing returns and entries into homeownership than White households after a tightening of monetary policy. Our findings emphasize the unintended consequences of monetary policy on racial inequality in the housing market.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Housing, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E5, E52, R, R0, R00

How Do People View Price and Wage Inflation?

Staff Working Paper 2022-34 Monica Jain, Olena Kostyshyna, Xu Zhang
This paper examines household-level data from the Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations (CSCE) to understand households’ expectations about price and wage inflation, how those expectations link to views about labour market conditions and the subsequent impact on households’ outlook for real spending growth.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Monetary policy communications JEL Code(s): C, C8, C83, D, D8, D84, E, E2, E21, E24, E3, E31

More Than Words: Fed Chairs’ Communication During Congressional Testimonies

Staff Working Paper 2022-20 Michelle Alexopoulos, Xinfen Han, Oleksiy Kryvtsov, Xu Zhang
We measure soft information contained in the congressional testimonies of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairs and analyze its effect on financial markets. Increases in the Chair’s text-, voice-, or face-emotion indices during these testimonies generally raise stock prices and lower their volatility.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Financial markets, Monetary policy communications JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E58, E7, E71

Evaluating the Effects of Forward Guidance and Large-scale Asset Purchases

Staff Working Paper 2021-54 Xu Zhang
I propose a novel method to identify and estimate the macroeconomic effects of forward guidance and large-scale asset purchases (LSAP) for each FOMC announcement. I find that LSAP is more important than forward guidance in influencing output and inflation. LSAP puts upward pressure on short-term yields, so it should always be used in conjunction with forward guidance.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Central bank research, Econometric and statistical methods, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E5, G, G0

A New Measure of Monetary Policy Shocks

Staff Working Paper 2021-29 Xu Zhang
Combining various high frequency financial data with central bank projections, I construct a new measure of monetary policy shocks not predictable by the public information preceding a central bank’s announcements. I then study the causal effects of monetary policy on the macro economy.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Central bank research, Econometric and statistical methods, Interest rates, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E5, G, G0

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Journal publications