The Causal Impact of Migration on US Trade: Evidence from Political Refugees Staff Working Paper 2017-49 Walter Steingress Immigrants can increase international trade by shifting preferences towards the goods of their country of origin and by reducing bilateral transaction costs. Using geographical variation across U.S. states for the period 2008 to 2013, I estimate the respective causal impact of immigrants on U.S. exports and imports. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): International topics, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): F, F1, F14, F2, F22, J, J6, J61
November 16, 2017 An Update on the Neutral Rate of Interest Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2017 José Dorich, Abeer Reza, Subrata Sarker The neutral rate serves as a benchmark for measuring monetary stimulus and provides a medium- to long-run anchor for the real policy rate. Global neutral rate estimates have been falling over the past few decades. Factors such as population aging, high corporate savings, and low trend productivity growth are likely to continue supporting a low global neutral rate. These global factors as well as domestic factors are exerting downward pres-sure on the Canadian real neutral rate, which is estimated to be between 0.5 to 1.5 per cent. This low neutral rate has important implications for monetary policy and financial stability. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Interest rates, International topics, Potential output, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E5, E52, E58, F, F0, F01, F4, F43, O, O4
Understanding the Time Variation in Exchange Rate Pass-Through to Import Prices Staff Discussion Paper 2017-12 Rose Cunningham, Min Jae Kim, Christian Friedrich, Kristina Hess In this paper, we analyze the presence of time variation in the pass-through from the nominal effective exchange rate to import prices for 24 advanced economies over the period 1995–2015. In line with earlier studies in the literature, we find substantial heterogeneity in the level of exchange rate pass-through across countries. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Exchange rates, Inflation and prices, International topics, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, F, F3, F31, F4, F41
Low Inflation in Advanced Economies: Facts and Drivers Staff Analytical Note 2017-16 Sanjana Bhatnagar, Anne-Katherine Cormier, Patrisha de Leon-Manlagnit, Elise Martin, Vikram Rai, Renaud St-Cyr, Subrata Sarker, Kristina Hess Since the global financial crisis, core inflation has been persistently below target in most advanced economies. Recently, it has weakened further in several advanced economies despite gradually diminishing slack. This note reviews recent developments in core inflation across advanced economies and identifies distinctive patterns across regions. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Inflation and prices, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E0, E3, E31, F, F0
Can the Canadian International Investment Position Stabilize a Slowing Economy? Staff Analytical Note 2017-14 Maxime Leboeuf, Chen Fan In this note, we find that valuation effects can act as an important stabilizer, strengthening Canada’s net external wealth when its economic outlook worsens relative to that of other countries. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Balance of payments and components, International financial markets JEL Code(s): F, F2, F21, F3, F32
Policy Rules for Capital Controls Staff Working Paper 2017-42 Gurnain Pasricha This paper attempts to borrow the tradition of estimating policy reaction functions in monetary policy literature and apply it to capital controls policy literature. Using a novel weekly dataset on capital controls policy actions in 21 emerging economies over the period 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2015, I examine the mercantilist and macroprudential motivations for capital control policies. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rate regimes, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, International topics JEL Code(s): F, F3, F4, F5, G, G0, G1
Global Trade Flows: Revisiting the Exchange Rate Elasticities Staff Working Paper 2017-41 Matthieu Bussière, Guillaume Gaulier, Walter Steingress This paper contributes to the debate on the magnitude of exchange rate elasticities by providing a set of price and quantity elasticities for 51 advanced and emerging-market economies. Specifically, for each of these countries we report the elasticity of trade prices and trade quantities on both the export and on the import sides, as well as the reaction of the trade balance. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rates, Inflation and prices, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C5, C51, F, F1, F14, F3, F31, F33, F4, F41
Cross-Border Bank Flows and Monetary Policy: Implications for Canada Staff Working Paper 2017-34 Ricardo Correa, Teodora Paligorova, Horacio Sapriza, Andrei Zlate Using the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Locational Banking Statistics data on bilateral bank claims from 1995 to 2014, we analyze the impact of monetary policy on cross-border bank flows. We find that monetary policy in a source country is an important determinant of cross-border bank flows. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): F, F3, F34, F36, G, G0, G01
Optimal Estimation of Multi-Country Gaussian Dynamic Term Structure Models Using Linear Regressions Staff Working Paper 2017-33 Antonio Diez de los Rios This paper proposes a novel asymptotic least-squares estimator of multi-country Gaussian dynamic term structure models that is easy to compute and asymptotically efficient, even when the number of countries is relatively large—a situation in which other recently proposed approaches lose their tractability. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Econometric and statistical methods, Exchange rates, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, F, F3, F31, G, G1, G12, G15
Understanding the Cross‐Country Effects of US Technology Shocks Staff Working Paper 2017-23 Thuy Lan Nguyen, Wataru Miyamoto Business cycles are substantially correlated across countries. Yet most existing models are not able to generate substantial transmission through international trade. We show that the nature of such transmission depends fundamentally on the features determining the responsiveness of labor supply and labor demand to international relative prices. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E3, E30, F, F4, F41, F44, F6, F62