Should Central Banks Worry About Nonlinearities of their Large-Scale Macroeconomic Models? Staff Working Paper 2017-21 Vadym Lepetyuk, Lilia Maliar, Serguei Maliar How wrong could policymakers be when using linearized solutions to their macroeconomic models instead of nonlinear global solutions? Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Econometric and statistical methods, Economic models JEL Code(s): C, C6, C61, C63, C68, E, E3, E31, E5, E52
Unintended Consequences of the Home Affordable Refinance Program Staff Working Paper 2024-11 Phoebe Tian, Chen Zheng We investigate the unintended consequences of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). Originally designed to help borrowers refinance after the 2008–09 global financial crisis, HARP inadvertently strengthened the market power of incumbent lenders by creating a cost advantage for them. Despite a 2013 policy rectifying this cost advantage, we still find significant welfare losses for borrowers. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions JEL Code(s): G, G2, G21, G5, G51, L, L5, L51
To Share or Not to Share? Uncovered Losses in a Derivatives Clearinghouse Staff Working Paper 2016-4 Radoslav Raykov This paper studies how the allocation of residual losses affects trading and welfare in a central counterparty. I compare loss sharing under two loss-allocation mechanisms – variation margin haircutting and cash calls – and study the privately and socially optimal degree of loss sharing. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): G, G1, G19, G2, G21
The Impact of Emerging Asia on Commodity Prices Staff Working Paper 2007-55 Sylvie Morin, Calista Cheung Over the past 5 years, real energy and non-energy commodity prices have trended sharply higher. These relative price movements have had important implications for inflation and economic activity in both Canada and the rest of the world. China has accounted for the bulk of incremental demand for oil and many base metals over this period. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E3, F, F4, O, O1, O19, Q, Q1, Q11
What Accounts for the U.S.-Canada Education-Premium Difference? Staff Working Paper 2009-4 Oleksiy Kryvtsov, Alexander Ueberfeldt This paper analyzes the differences in wage ratios of university graduates to less than university graduates, the education premium, in Canada and the United States from 1980 to 2000. Both countries experienced a similar increase in the fraction of university graduates and a similar increase in skill biased technological change based on capital-embodied technological progress, but only the United States had a large increase in the education premium. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, E25, J, J2, J24, J3, J31
Reassessing Trade Barriers with Global Value Chains Staff Working Paper 2019-19 Yuko Imura This paper provides a systematic, quantitative analysis of the short-run and long-run effects of various trade-restricting policies in the presence of global value chains and multinational production. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Firm dynamics, International topics, Trade integration JEL Code(s): F, F1, F12, F13, F4, F41
What Fed Funds Futures Tell Us About Monetary Policy Uncertainty Staff Working Paper 2016-61 Jean-Sébastien Fontaine The uncertainty around future changes to the Federal Reserve target rate varies over time. In our results, the main driver of uncertainty is a “path” factor signaling information about future policy actions, which is filtered from federal funds futures data. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E44, E47, G, G1, G12, G13
Interpreting Volatility Shocks as Preference Shocks Staff Working Paper 2016-45 Shaofeng Xu This paper examines the relationship between volatility shocks and preference shocks in an analytically tractable endogenous growth model with recursive preferences and stochastic volatility. I show that there exists an explicit mapping between volatility shocks and preference shocks, and a rise in volatility generates the same impulse responses of macroeconomic aggregates as a negative preference shock. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models JEL Code(s): E, E2, E3
Linking Real Activity and Financial Markets: The Bonds, Equity, and Money (BEAM) Model Staff Working Paper 2006-42 Céline Gauthier, Fuchun Li The authors estimate a small monthly macroeconometric model (BEAM, for bonds, equity, and money) of the Canadian economy built around three cointegrating relationships linking financial and real variables over the 1975–2002 period. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Financial stability JEL Code(s): C, C5, E, E4
Portfolio Considerations in Differentiated Product Purchases: An Application to the Japanese Automobile Market Staff Working Paper 2011-27 Naoki Wakamori Consumers often purchase more than one differentiated product, assembling a portfolio, which might potentially affect substitution patterns of demand and, as a consequence, oligopolistic firms’ pricing strategies. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D4, L, L5, Q, Q5