René Lalonde - Latest

• June 11, 2009

  BoC-GEM: Modelling the World Economy

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2009 René Lalonde, Dirk Muir

  BoC-GEM, an adaptation of the Global Economy Model, initially developed at the International Monetary Fund and the New York Federal Reserve, is a very useful tool to tackle a broad range of issues pertinent to the current economic context, such as the recent movements in commodity prices and the adjustment of global imbalances. This article describes the structure and functioning of BoC-GEM and details some examples of recent application in the areas of monetary policy and issues in the real economy and questions of financial stability and describes ongoing research into introducing a financial sector into the model.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Economic models, International topics

• Emerging Asia's Impact on Food and Oil Prices: A Model-Based Analysis

  Staff Discussion Paper 2009-3 René Lalonde, Philipp Maier, Dirk Muir

  The authors explore the usefulness of macroeconomic models in analyzing global economic developments by examining movements in commodity prices between July 2007 and July 2008. They use the Bank of Canada's version of the Global Economy Model and investigate the longer-term outlook for commodity prices by constructing two different, globally consistent, scenarios for emerging Asia.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): International topics, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E3, E30, E5, E50, E58, E6, E60
• June 21, 2008

  Bank of Canada Participation in the 2007 FSAP Macro Stress-Testing Exercise

  Financial System Review - June 2008 Donald Coletti, René Lalonde, Miroslav Misina, Dirk Muir, Pierre St-Amant, David Tessier

  Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles

• Inflation Targeting and Price-Level-Path Targeting in the GEM: Some Open Economy Considerations

  Staff Working Paper 2008-6 Donald Coletti, René Lalonde, Dirk Muir

  This paper compares the performance of simple inflation targeting (IT) and price-level path targeting (PLPT) rules to stabilize the macroeconomy, in response to a series of shocks, similar to those seen in Canada and the United States over the 1983 to 2004 period.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Inflation and prices, Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): C, C5, C51, C52, E, E1, E17, E3, E31, E5, E52
• December 10, 2007

  Inflation Targeting, Price-Level Targeting, and Fluctuations in Canada's Terms of Trade

  Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2007-2008 Donald Coletti, René Lalonde

  Coletti and Lalonde compare inflation targeting and price-level targeting in the context of a small open economy subject to sizable terms-of-trade shocks. The authors summarize recent research that compares the ability of price-level targeting and inflation targeting to stabilize the macroeconomy when confronted with shocks similar to those experienced by Canada in recent years. Their preliminary results suggest that price-level targeting may represent a feasible alternative to traditional inflation targeting. Their article also provides insight into the direction of current research in this area at the Bank.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Central bank research, Inflation and prices, Monetary policy framework

• The Bank of Canada's Version of the Global Economy Model (BoC-GEM)

  Technical Report No. 98 René Lalonde, Dirk Muir

  The Bank of Canada's version of the Global Economy Model (BoC-GEM) is derived from the model created at the International Monetary Fund by Douglas Laxton (IMF) and Paolo Pesenti (Federal Reserve Bank of New York and National Bureau of Economic Research).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C6, C68, E, E2, E27, E3, E37, F, F3, F32, F4, F47

• Oil Price Movements and the Global Economy: A Model-Based Assessment

  Staff Working Paper 2007-34 Selim Elekdag, René Lalonde, Douglas Laxton, Dirk Muir, Paolo Pesenti

  We develop a five-region version (Canada, an oil exporter, the United States, emerging Asia and Japan plus the euro area) of the Global Economy Model (GEM) encompassing production and trade of crude oil, and use it to study the international transmission mechanism of shocks that drive oil prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Inflation and prices, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E6, E66, F, F3, F32, F4, F47
• October 20, 2006

  MUSE: The Bank of Canada's New Projection Model of the U.S. Economy

  Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2006 Marc-André Gosselin, René Lalonde, Nicolas Parent

  Staff projections provided for the Bank of Canada's monetary policy decision process take into account the integration of Canada's very open economy within the global economy, as well as its close real and financial linkages with the United States. To provide inputs for this projection, the Bank has developed several models, including MUSE, NEUQ (the New European Quarterly Model), and BoC-GEM (Bank of Canada Global Economy Model), to analyze and forecast economic developments in the rest of the world. The authors focus on MUSE, the model currently used to describe interaction among the principal U.S. economic variables, including gross domestic product, inflation, interest rates, and the exchange rate. Brief descriptions are also provided of NEUQ and BoC-GEM.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Economic models, International topics

• The Federal Reserve's Dual Mandate: A Time-Varying Monetary Policy Priority Index for the United States

  Staff Working Paper 2006-11 René Lalonde, Nicolas Parent

  In the United States, the Federal Reserve has a dual mandate of promoting stable inflation and maximum employment. Since the Fed directly controls only one instrument - the federal funds rate - the authors argue that the Fed's priorities continuously alternate between inflation and economic activity.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, C5, C52, E, E5, E52

• MUSE: The Bank of Canada's New Projection Model of the U.S. Economy

  Technical Report No. 96 Marc-André Gosselin, René Lalonde

  The analysis and forecasting of developments in the U.S. economy have always played a critical role in the formulation of Canadian economic and financial policy. Thus, the Bank places considerable importance on generating internal forecasts of U.S. economic activity as an input to the Canadian projection.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models JEL Code(s): C, C5, C53, E, E1, E17, E2, E27, E3, E37, F, F1, F17