March 9, 2010 Monetary Policy Rules in an Uncertain Environment Bank of Canada Review - Spring 2010 Gino Cateau, Stephen Murchison This article examines recent research on the influence of various forms of economic uncertainty on the performance of different classes of monetary policy rules: from simple rules to fully optimal monetary policy under commitment. The authors explain why uncertainty matters in the design of monetary policy rules and provide quantitative examples from the recent literature. They also present results for several policy rules in ToTEM, the Bank of Canada's main model for projection and analysis, including rules that respond to price level, rather than to inflation. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Economic models, Monetary policy and uncertainty, Monetary policy framework
March 9, 2010 An Uncertain Past: Data Revisions and Monetary Policy in Canada Bank of Canada Review - Spring 2010 Greg Tkacz Many important economic variables are subject to revision. This article explains how, when, and why such revisions occur; how revisions to Canadian gross domestic product (GDP) compare with GDP revisions in some other countries; which GDP components are subject to the largest revisions; and how data revisions can affect policy decisions. The author finds that revisions to Canadian GDP tend to be smaller, on average, than those of some other countries, and that among the GDP components, exports and imports are most heavily revised. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Monetary policy and uncertainty
June 16, 2008 A Money and Credit Real-Time Database for Canada Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2008 Roobina Keshishbanoosy, Pierre St-Amant, Devin Ball, Ivan Medovikov Model-based forecasts of important economic variables are part of the range of information considered for monetary policy decision making. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Monetary aggregates, Monetary policy and uncertainty
Price Level versus Inflation Targeting under Model Uncertainty Staff Working Paper 2008-15 Gino Cateau The purpose of this paper is to make a quantitative contribution to the inflation versus price level targeting debate. It considers a policy-maker that can set policy either through an inflation targeting rule or a price level targeting rule to minimize a quadratic loss function using the actual projection model of the Bank of Canada (ToTEM). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): D, D8, D81, E, E5, E58
Survey-Based Estimates of the Term Structure of Expected U.S. Inflation Staff Working Paper 2006-46 Sharon Kozicki, P. A. Tinsley Surveys provide direct information on expectations, but only short histories are available at quarterly frequencies or for long-horizon expectations. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Inflation targets, Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): E, E3, E5
Guarding Against Large Policy Errors under Model Uncertainty Staff Working Paper 2006-13 Gino Cateau How can policy-makers avoid large policy errors when they are uncertain about the true model of the economy? Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): D, D8, D81, E, E5, E58
Are Currency Crises Low-State Equilibria? An Empirical, Three-Interest-Rate Model Staff Working Paper 2006-5 Christopher Cornell, Raphael Solomon Suppose that the dynamics of the macroeconomy were given by (partly) random fluctuations between two equilibria: "good" and "bad." Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): C, C6, C62, E, E5, E59, F, F4, F41
June 22, 2005 Estimating the Impact of Monetary Policy Surprises on Fixed-Income Markets Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2005 Jason Andreou In the interest of better understanding the impact of the Bank of Canada's policy actions on bond and bill yields, Andreou assesses the impact of policy-rate announcements on short and long bonds over the period 1996 to 2004. To aid the analysis, policy actions are decomposed into expected and surprise components. He also examines whether the introduction of fixed announcement dates (FADs) has affected these results, including markets' perceptions. The main finding is that unexpected policy actions by the Bank have a significant effect on market rates at the shorter end of the yield curve, with the effect dissipating as the maturity increases. A second finding, that the impact on longer-term interest rates of a surprise action by the Bank has diminished since the introduction of the FADs, suggests that the Bank's long-term policy goals are well understood and credible. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Credibility, Financial markets, Monetary policy and uncertainty
Monetary Policy under Model and Data-Parameter Uncertainty Staff Working Paper 2005-6 Gino Cateau Policy-makers in the United States over the past 15 to 20 years seem to have been cautious in setting policy: empirical estimates of monetary policy rules such as Taylor's (1993) rule are much less aggressive than those derived from optimizing models. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): D, D8, D81, E, E5, E58
November 23, 2003 An Evaluation of Fixed Announcement Dates Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2003 Nicolas Parent, Phoebe Munro, Ron Parker When it launched a new system for regularly announcing its decisions regarding the overnight rate of interest in December 2000, the Bank of Canada had a number of key objectives in mind. These included reduced uncertainty in financial markets, greater focus on the Canadian rather than the U.S. economic environment, more emphasis on the medium-term perspective of monetary policy, and increased transparency regarding the Bank's interest rate decisions. Evidence to date suggests that all four objectives have been met to a substantial degree. Fixed announcement dates have provided regular opportunities for the Bank to communicate its views on the state of the Canadian economy to the public. This has helped to improve understanding of the broad direction of monetary policy and of the rationale behind the Bank's policy decisions although the decisions themselves are not always fully anticipated. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Credibility, Financial markets, Interest rates, Monetary policy and uncertainty, Monetary policy implementation