Limited Commitment, Endogenous Credibility and the Challenges of Price-level Targeting Staff working paper 2018-61 Gino Cateau, Malik Shukayev This paper studies the cost of limited commitment when a central bank has the discretion to adjust policy whenever the costs of honoring its past commitments become high. Specifically, we consider a central bank that seeks to implement optimal policy in a New Keynesian model by committing to a price-level target path. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission
Job Ladder and Business Cycles Staff working paper 2022-14 Felipe Alves During downturns, workers get stuck in low-productivity jobs and wages remain stagnant. I build an heterogenous agent incomplete market model with a full job ladder that accounts for these facts. An adverse financial shock calibrated to the US Great Recession replicates the period’s slow recovery and missing disinflation. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D3, D31, D5, D52, E, E2, E21, E24, E3, E31, E32 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply
Business Cycles in Small, Open Economies: Evidence from Panel Data Between 1900 and 2013 Staff working paper 2016-48 Thuy Lan Nguyen, Wataru Miyamoto Using a novel data set for 17 countries dating from 1900 to 2013, we characterize business cycles in both small developed and developing countries in a model with financial frictions and a common shock structure. We estimate the model jointly for these 17 countries using Bayesian methods. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E1, E13, E3, E32, F, F4, F41, F44 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, International trade, finance and competitiveness
The Role of Central Banks in Promoting Financial Stability: An International Perspective Staff discussion paper 2016-15 Rose Cunningham, Christian Friedrich The 2007–09 global financial crisis has led policy-makers around the world, including central banks, to refocus their efforts to promote financial stability. As part of this process, central banks became quite active in supporting financial stability in a variety of ways, such as publicly sharing their assessments of financial system vulnerabilities and risks and helping to strengthen regulation, supervision and macroprudential measures. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): E, E5, G, G0, G01, G2, G28 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Financial system regulation and oversight, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission
Beating the “pros” with a semi-structural model of their own inflation forecasts Staff working paper 2026-11 Sergio A. Lago Alves, Waldyr Dutra Areosa, Carlos Viana de Carvalho How can Surveys of Professional Forecasters (SPF) be used to improve inflation forecasts? By using US historical quarterly data on SPF forecasts, we provide better understanding of how we can use forecast disagreement to improve our own forecasts. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C11, C5, C53, E, E3, E31, E37 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting
Privacy-Enhancing Technologies for CBDC Solutions Staff discussion paper 2025-1 Rakesh Arora, Han Du, Raza Ali Kazmi, Duc-Phong Le Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) could offer solutions to safeguard end-user privacy and meet rigorous data protection standards for central bank digital currencies. We consider how PETs can transform privacy design in financial systems and the implications of their broader adoption. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, O, O3, O31 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial system regulation and oversight, Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures
Identifying Consumer-Welfare Changes when Online Search Platforms Change Their List of Search Results Staff working paper 2020-5 Ryan Martin Online shopping is often guided by search platforms. Consumers type keywords into query boxes, and search platforms deliver a list of products. Consumers' attention is limited, and exhaustive searches are often impractical. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C14, D, D1, D11, D12, D6, D8, D83, L, L4, L40 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market structure, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods
Monetary Policy Transmission, Bank Market Power, and Wholesale Funding Reliance Staff working paper 2023-35 Amina Enkhbold I study how banking market concentration and reliance on wholesale funding affect monetary policy transmission to mortgage rates. I find that this transmission is imperfect and dampens the response of consumption, output, and housing prices. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E5, E52, G, G2, G21 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Household and business credit, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission
A Comprehensive Evaluation of Measures of Core Inflation in Canada: An Update Staff discussion paper 2019-9 Helen Lao, Ceciline Steyn We provide an updated evaluation of the value of various measures of core inflation that could be used in the conduct of monetary policy. We find that the Bank of Canada’s current preferred measures of core inflation—CPI-trim, CPI-median and CPI-common—continue to outperform alternative core measures across a range of criteria. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Monetary policy framework and transmission
Equity Option-Implied Probability of Default and Equity Recovery Rate Staff working paper 2016-58 Bo Young Chang, Greg Orosi There is a close link between prices of equity options and the default probability of a firm. We show that in the presence of positive expected equity recovery, standard methods that assume zero equity recovery at default misestimate the option-implied default probability. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G1, G13, G3, G33 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk