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 Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, C5, C52, E, E5, E52
A Measure of Underlying Inflation in the United States Staff Working Paper 1997-20 Iris Claus A monetary authority with the primary objective of price stability has to distinguish between temporary price shocks and persistent shocks to the rate of inflation. A measure of underlying inflation, therefore, has an important role to play as a guideline for monetary policy. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Inflation and prices, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31
Banks, Credit Market Frictions, and Business Cycles Staff Working Paper 2010-24 Ali Dib The author proposes a micro-founded framework that incorporates an active banking sector into a dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model with a financial accelerator. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Credit and credit aggregates, Economic models, Financial stability JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E4, E44, G, G1
Poignée de main invisible et persistance des cycles économiques : une revue de la littérature Staff Working Paper 2003-40 Christian Calmès The author explains how self-enforcing labour contracts can enhance the performance of macroeconomic models. He exposes the benefits of using these dynamic contracts to account for some puzzling macroeconomic facts regarding the dynamics and persistence of employment, consumption and output. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models JEL Code(s): E, E1, E12, E4, E49, J, J3, J30, J31, J4, J41
Merchant Acceptance, Costs, and Perceptions of Retail Payments: A Canadian Survey Staff Discussion Paper 2008-12 Carlos Arango, Varya Taylor Using the results of a survey on accepted means of payment, the authors examine merchant preferences and perceptions of retail payment reliability, risk, and costs; the share of each type of payment method over total sales; and the costs involved in accepting payments. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Research Topic(s): Bank notes JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, L, L2
Macroeconomic Uncertainty Through the Lens of Professional Forecasters Staff Working Paper 2016-5 Soojin Jo, Rodrigo Sekkel We analyze the evolution of macroeconomic uncertainty in the United States, based on the forecast errors of consensus survey forecasts of different economic indicators. Comprehensive information contained in the survey forecasts enables us to capture a real-time subjective measure of uncertainty in a simple framework. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C3, C38, E, E1, E17, E3, E32
Some Notes on Monetary Policy Rules with Uncertainty Staff Working Paper 2003-16 Gabriel Srour The author explores the role that Taylor-type rules can play in monetary policy, given the degree of uncertainty in the economy. The optimal rule is derived from a simple infinite-horizon model of the monetary transmission mechanism, with only additive uncertainty. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52
Modeling Fluctuations in the Global Demand for Commodities Staff Working Paper 2018-4 Lutz Kilian, Xiaoqing Zhou It is widely understood that the real price of globally traded commodities is determined by the forces of demand and supply. One of the main determinants of the real price of commodities is shifts in the demand for commodities associated with unexpected fluctuations in global real economic activity. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, International topics JEL Code(s): F, F4, F44, Q, Q1, Q11, Q3, Q31, Q4, Q41, Q43
Low Response Rate from Merchants? Sample and Ask Consumers! An Application of Indirect Sampling Under a Consumer-Merchant Bipartite Network Technical Report No. 126 Heng Chen, Joy Wu Under the consumer-merchant bipartite network, we apply the indirect sampling approach to estimate merchant payment acceptance through a consumer payment diary. Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C8, C80, C83, E, E5
Forecasting and Analyzing World Commodity Prices Staff Working Paper 2003-24 René Lalonde, Zhenhua Zhu, Frédérick Demers The authors develop simple econometric models to analyze and forecast two components of the Bank of Canada commodity price index: the Bank of Canada non-energy (BCNE) commodity prices and the West Texas Intermediate crude oil price. They present different methodologies to identify transitory and permanent components of movements in these prices. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C5