A Bitcoin Standard: Lessons from the Gold Standard Staff Working Paper 2016-14 Warren E. Weber This paper imagines a world in which countries are on the Bitcoin standard, a monetary system in which all media of exchange are Bitcoin or are backed by it. The paper explores the similarities and differences between the Bitcoin standard and the gold standard and describes the media of exchange that would exist under the Bitcoin standard. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Exchange rates, Financial services, Inflation and prices JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E58
Agency Costs, Risk Shocks and International Cycles Staff Working Paper 2016-2 Marc-André Letendre, Joel Wagner We add agency costs as in Carlstrom and Fuerst (1997) into a two-country, two-good international business-cycle model. In our model, changes in the relative price of investment arise endogenously. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E2, E22, E3, E32, E4, E44, F, F4, F44
Estimating Canada’s Effective Lower Bound Staff Analytical Note 2015-2 Jonathan Witmer, Jing Yang In 2009, the Bank of Canada set its effective lower bound (ELB) at 25 basis points (bps). Given the recent experience of Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and the euro area with negative interest rates, we examine the economics of negative interest rates and suggest that cash storage costs are the source of a negative lower bound on interest rates. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Central bank research, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): D, D5, D53, E, E4, E41, E43, E5, E58
On the Essentiality of E-Money Staff Working Paper 2015-43 Jonathan Chiu, Tsz-Nga Wong Recent years have witnessed the advances of e-money systems such as Bitcoin, PayPal and various forms of stored-value cards. This paper adopts a mechanism design approach to identify some essential features of different payment systems that implement and improve the constrained optimal resource allocation. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E58, L, L5, L51
Forward Guidance at the Effective Lower Bound: International Experience Staff Discussion Paper 2015-15 Karyne B. Charbonneau, Lori Rennison Forward guidance is one of the policy tools that a central bank can implement if it seeks to provide additional monetary stimulus when it is operating at the effective lower bound (ELB) on interest rates. It became more widely used during and after the global financial crisis. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty, Monetary policy communications, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E5, E52, E58, E6
Monetary Policy and Financial Stability: Cross-Country Evidence Staff Working Paper 2015-41 Christian Friedrich, Kristina Hess, Rose Cunningham Central banks may face challenges in achieving their price stability goals when financial stability risks are present. There is, however, considerable heterogeneity among central banks with respect to how they manage these potential trade-offs. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial stability, International topics, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E4, E5, G, G0, G01
Credit Conditions and Consumption, House Prices and Debt: What Makes Canada Different? Staff Working Paper 2015-40 John Muellbauer, Pierre St-Amant, David Williams There is widespread agreement that, in the United States, higher house prices raise consumption via collateral or possibly wealth effects. The presence of similar channels in Canada would have important implications for monetary policy transmission. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Domestic demand and components, Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, Housing, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E0, E02, E2, E21, E4, E44, G, G2, G21, R, R2, R21, R3, R31
On the Nexus of Monetary Policy and Financial Stability: Recent Developments and Research Staff Discussion Paper 2015-7 Oleksiy Kryvtsov, Miguel Molico, Ben Tomlin Because financial and macroeconomic conditions are tightly interconnected, financial stability considerations are an important element of any monetary policy framework. Yet, the circumstances under which it would be appropriate for the Bank to use monetary policy to lean against financial risks need to be more fully specified (Côté 2014). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Financial stability, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E0, E4, E44, E5, E52, E58, G, G1, G18
Shock Transmission Through International Banks: Canada Technical Report No. 105 James Chapman, H. Evren Damar In this paper, we investigate how liquidity conditions in Canada may affect domestic and/or foreign lending of globally active banks and whether this transmission is influenced by individual bank characteristics. Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial stability JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, F, F3, F36, G, G2, G21, G3, G32
Public Policy Objectives and the Next Generation of CPA Systems: An Analytical Framework Staff Discussion Paper 2015-6 James Chapman, Jonathan Chiu, Sajjad Jafri, Héctor Pérez Saiz The payments landscape in Canada is rapidly changing and will continue to evolve, fuelled by strong and persistent drivers. In Canada, the Canadian Payments Association (CPA) is on a path to modernize Canada’s core payment systems. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Economic models, Financial services, Financial system regulation and policies, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, L, L1, L14, L15, L5, L52