Canada’s Monetary Policy Report: If Text Could Speak, What Would It Say? Staff Analytical Note 2019-5 André Binette, Dmitri Tchebotarev This note analyzes the evolution of the narrative in the Bank of Canada’s Monetary Policy Report (MPR). It presents descriptive statistics on the core text, including length, most frequently used words and readability level—the three Ls. Although each Governor of the Bank of Canada focuses on the macroeconomic events of the day and the mandate of inflation targeting, we observe that the language used in the MPR varies somewhat from one Governor’s tenure to the next. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Central bank research, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E0, E02, E5, E52
March 14, 2019 The Age of Leverage Remarks Carolyn A. Wilkins UBC Vancouver School of Economics and CFA Society Vancouver Vancouver, British Columbia Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn A. Wilkins discusses how high leverage is both a headwind to global growth and a vulnerability in the global financial system. Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Remarks Research Topic(s): Balance of payments and components, Credit risk management, Financial institutions, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, Fiscal policy
Risk-Neutral Moment-Based Estimation of Affine Option Pricing Models Staff Working Paper 2017-55 Bruno Feunou, Cédric Okou This paper provides a novel methodology for estimating option pricing models based on risk-neutral moments. We synthesize the distribution extracted from a panel of option prices and exploit linear relationships between risk-neutral cumulants and latent factors within the continuous time affine stochastic volatility framework. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Asset pricing, Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12
The Bank of Canada’s 2009 Methods-of-Payment Survey: Methodology and Key Results Staff Discussion Paper 2012-6 Carlos Arango, Angelika Welte The authors present the methodology and main findings of the Bank of Canada’s 2009 Methods-of-Payment survey, a detailed investigation of consumer payment behaviour in Canada. The survey targeted the 18- to 75-year-old Canadian resident population. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Financial services, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4
Do Peer Group Members Outperform Individual Borrowers? A Test of Peer Group Lending Using Canadian Micro-Credit Data Staff Working Paper 2003-33 Rafael Gomez, Eric Santor Microfinance institutions now serve over 10 million poor households in the developing and developed world, and much of their success has been attributed to their innovative use of peer group lending. There is very little empirical evidence, however, to suggest that group lending schemes offer a superior institutional design over lending programs that serve individual borrowers. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Development economics JEL Code(s): E, J, J2, J23, O, O1, O17
The Neutral Rate in Canada: 2018 Estimates Staff Analytical Note 2018-22 Xin Scott Chen, José Dorich The neutral nominal policy rate serves as a benchmark for assessing the degree of monetary stimulus and provides a medium- to long-run anchor for the policy rate. Since quantitative measures of the neutral rate are subject to considerable uncertainty, Bank staff rely on four different approaches to estimate the Canadian neutral rate. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Economic models, Interest rates, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E43, E5, E50, E52, E58, F, F4, F41
A Structural Interpretation of the Recent Weakness in Business Investment Staff Analytical Note 2017-7 Russell Barnett, Rhys R. Mendes Since 2012, business investment growth has slowed considerably in advanced economies, averaging a little less than 2 per cent versus the 4 per cent growth rates experienced in the period leading up to crisis. Several recent studies have attributed a large part of the weakness in business investment to cyclical factors, including soft aggregate demand, and, to a lesser degree, heightened uncertainty and tighter financial conditions. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Domestic demand and components, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E2, E22, E3, E37
Monetary Payoff and Utility Function in Adaptive Learning Models Staff Working Paper 2019-50 Erhao Xie When players repeatedly face an identical or similar game (e.g., coordination game, technology adoption game, or product choice game), they may learn through experience to perform better in the future. This learning behaviour has important economic implications. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Economic models JEL Code(s): C, C5, C57, C7, C72, C9, C92
The Real-Time Properties of the Bank of Canada’s Staff Output Gap Estimates Staff Working Paper 2016-28 Julien Champagne, Guillaume Poulin-Bellisle, Rodrigo Sekkel We study the revision properties of the Bank of Canada’s staff output gap estimates since the mid-1980s. Our results suggest that the average staff output gap revision has decreased significantly over the past 15 years, in line with recent evidence for the U.S. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Central bank research, Econometric and statistical methods, Potential output JEL Code(s): C, C3, C38, E, E1, E17, E3, E32
Canada's Pioneering Experience with a Flexible Exchange Rate in the 1950s: (Hard) Lessons Learned for Monetary Policy in a Small Open Economy Staff Working Paper 2007-45 Michael Bordo, Ali Dib, Lawrence L. Schembri This paper revisits Canada's pioneering experience with floating exchange rate over the period 1950–1962. It examines whether the floating rate was the best option for Canada in the 1950s by developing and estimating a New Keynesian small open economy model of the Canadian economy. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Economic models, Exchange rates JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E37, F, F3, F31, F32, N, N1