May 6, 1995 Managing the federal government's cash balances: A technical note Bank of Canada Review - Spring 1995 Daryl Merrett, Serge Boisvert, Philippe Côté In addition to its primary role as the country's central bank, the Bank of Canada also acts as the federal government's banker and financial adviser. One of the activities associated with this role as fiscal agent is managing the government's Canadian dollar balances. This function is examined in this article. The main priority is to ensure that the government has sufficient cash to meet its daily needs. This requires careful forecasting and monitoring of the government's daily receipt and expenditure flows, as well as an ongoing borrowing program to refinance maturing debt and to replenish the balances during periods when outflows, on average, exceed inflows. The cost of borrowing to raise cash balances for the government is considerably higher than the interest earned on any balances that are available "on demand." To reduce this net cost, balances in excess of those required for daily needs are invested in "term" deposits that earn a higher rate of interest than that earned on the demand balances. The net cost of holding government balances has also been reduced through the use of cash management bills, which are flexible, short-term borrowing instruments that complement the government's regular weekly issues of 3-, 6- and 12-month treasury bills. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Debt management
May 7, 1995 Disinflation in the 1990s: The experience of the industrialized world Bank of Canada Review - Spring 1995 Graydon Paulin Canada has not been alone in making substantial progress towards price stability. Average inflation in the industrialized countries fell markedly in the first half of the 1990s, the third such episode of broad-based disinflation in the last 20 years. By the latter part of 1994, inflation in many countries had fallen to rates that had not been sustained since the early 1960s, generally converging to within a range of 1 to 3 per cent. Despite the decline in inflation to similar low levels, there were a number of interesting developments across the industrialized countries. For example, the pace of disinflation slowed noticeably after 1992 despite continued weak demand conditions. Inflation in countries that experienced a sharp depreciation in their exchange rates in the first half of the 1990s was, on average, no higher than elsewhere. The author identifies various factors affecting inflation outcomes in the industrialized countries. These include special factors, such as changes to indirect taxes, as well as more fundamental determinants of inflation, including the degree of economic slack. The presence of these factors, and perhaps the way in which inflation responded to them, varied across countries. One common element, however, was an increased commitment by monetary authorities across the industrialized economies to the goal of achieving and maintaining price stability. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): International topics, Recent economic and financial developments
On the Advantages of Disaggregated Data: Insights from Forecasting the U.S. Economy in a Data-Rich Environment Staff Working Paper 2010-10 Nikita Perevalov, Philipp Maier The good forecasting performance of factor models has been well documented in the literature. While many studies focus on a very limited set of variables (typically GDP and inflation), this study evaluates forecasting performance at disaggregated levels to examine the source of the improved forecasting accuracy, relative to a simple autoregressive model. We use the latest revision of over 100 U.S. time series over the period 1974-2009 (monthly and quarterly data). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C5, C50, C53, E, E3, E37, E4, E47
Labour Reallocation, Relative Prices and Productivity Staff Working Paper 2010-2 Shutao Cao, Danny Leung This paper documents the rate at which labour flows between industries and between firms within industries using the most recent data available. It examines the determinants of these flows and their relationship with the productivity growth. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Labour markets, Productivity JEL Code(s): D, D2, D23, E, E3, E32, J, J6
Relative Price Movements and Labour Productivity in Canada: A VAR Analysis Staff Discussion Paper 2010-5 Michael Dolega, David Dupuis, Lise Pichette In recent years, the Canadian economy has been affected by strong movements in relative prices brought about by the surging costs of energy and non-energy commodities, with significant implications for the terms of trade, the exchange rate, and the allocation of resources across Canadian sectors and regions. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Labour markets, Productivity, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E2, E23, E24, O, O4, O47
Empirical Evidence on the Cost of Adjustment and Dynamic Labour Demand Staff Working Paper 1995-3 Robert Amano In this paper the author examines whether there is significant evidence of the effect of adjustment costs on Canadian labour demand. This is an important question, as sluggish adjustment of labour demand resulting from significant adjustment costs may be one factor that could help explain some of the unemployment persistence found in Canadian data. The […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets
Forecasting GDP Growth Using Artificial Neural Networks Staff Working Paper 1999-3 Greg Tkacz, Sarah Hu Financial and monetary variables have long been known to contain useful leading information regarding economic activity. In this paper, the authors wish to determine whether the forecasting performance of such variables can be improved using neural network models. The main findings are that, at the 1-quarter forecasting horizon, neural networks yield no significant forecast improvements. […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Monetary and financial indicators JEL Code(s): C, C4, C45, E, E3, E37, E4, E44
Searching for the Liquidity Effect in Canada Staff Working Paper 1994-12 Ben Fung, Rohit Gupta This paper examines the empirical evidence of the liquidity effect in Canada. In the presence of the liquidity effect, the initial impact of an unanticipated expansionary monetary policy is to lower nominal and real interest rates for a short period of time. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary aggregates
The Causes of Unemployment in Canada: A Review of the Evidence Staff Working Paper 1994-11 Stephen S. Poloz This paper reviews various competing theories of structural unemployment and considers whether they may be used to explain any of the rise in unemployment experienced by Canada during the most recent economic cycle. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets
An Empirical Investigation into Government Spending and Private Sector Behaviour Staff Working Paper 1994-8 Robert Amano, Tony S. Wirjanto We examine whether there is a significant relationship between government and private consumption for Canada. We derive estimating equations between the two types of consumption under both cointegration and no-cointegration assumptions. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Recent economic and financial developments