Toni Gravelle - Latest
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November 11, 2008
The Market Impact of Forward-Looking Policy Statements: Transparency vs. Predictability
Central banks continuously strive to improve how they communicate to financial markets and the public in order to increase transparency. For this reason, many central banks have begun to include guidance on the policy rate in the form of forward-looking statements in their communications. This article examines the debate over the usefulness of providing such statements from both theoretical and empirical standpoints. The evidence presented here suggests that the use of forward-looking statements in Bank of Canada communications has made the Bank more predictable, but not necessarily more transparent. -
The Implementation of Monetary Policy in Canada
The authors present a detailed discussion of the Bank of Canada's framework for the implementation of monetary policy. As background, they provide a brief overview of the financial system in Canada, including a discussion of the financial services industry and the money market. -
October 12, 2007
Bank of Canada Workshop on Derivatives Markets in Canada and Beyond
At this 2006 workshop hosted by the Bank of Canada, an international group of market participants, regulators, and policy-makers gathered to assess recent developments in the derivatives market. Among the topics discussed were the recent prodigious growth in risk-transfer instruments, including credit derivatives and inflation-linked derivatives, as well as the accompanying challenges and benefits. Overall, the development of derivatives markets was seen as providing broad economic benefits, including more complete financial markets, improved market liquidity, and increased capacity of the financial system to effectively price and bear risk. Yet concern was also voiced that market participants do not fully understand the risks that arise in trading credit derivatives. -
Shift Contagion in Asset Markets
The authors develop a new methodology to investigate how crises cause the relationship between financial variables to change. Two possible sources of increased co-movement between markets during high-variance episodes are considered: larger common shocks operating through standard market linkages, and a structural change in the propagation of shocks between markets, called "shift contagion." -
Alternative Trading Systems: Does One Shoe Fit All?
This paper examines the factors that lead liquidity-motivated investors to choose the type of market structure they prefer. -
The Microstructure of Multiple-Dealer Equity and Government Securities Markets: How They Differ
Although dealership government and equity securities have, on the surface, similar market structures, the author demonstrates that some subtle differences exist between them that are likely to significantly affect the way market-makers trade, and as such have an impact on the liquidity that they provide. -
Reactions of Canadian Interest Rates to Macroeconomic Announcements: Implications for Monetary Policy Transparency
In this study we statistically quantify the reactions of Canadian and U.S. interest rates to macroeconomic announcements released in Canada and in the United States. We find that Canadian interest rates react very little to Canadian macroeconomic news and are significantly affected by U.S. macroeconomic news, which indicates that international influences on the Canadian fixed-income markets are important. -
November 15, 1999
Markets for Government of Canada Securities in the 1990s: Liquidity and Cross-Country Comparisons
In this article, the author reviews the factors behind the recent evolution of liquidity in the market for Government of Canada (GoC) securities. He finds that liquidity has been supported by changes in the structure of the market, notably the introduction and increasing size of benchmark bond issues. He also notes that while the GoC bond market has generally benefited from changes in market structure, liquidity in the treasury bill market has decreased since the mid-1990s, largely because of the declining supply of these securities. This article also presents some comparisons of liquidity in the government securities markets of other industrialized countries and finds that liquidity in the Canadian market appears to compare favourably with all but the large U.S. Treasury market. -
Liquidity of the Government of Canada Securities Market: Stylized Facts and Some Market Microstructure Comparisons to the United States Treasury Market
The aims of this study are to examine how liquidity in the Government of Canada securities market has evolved over the 1990s and to determine what factors influence the level of liquidity in this market, with some comparisons to the U.S. Treasury securities market. We find empirical support for the hypothesis that an increase in […]