Financial Stress, Monetary Policy, and Economic Activity Staff Working Paper 2010-12 Fuchun Li, Pierre St-Amant This paper examines empirically the impact of financial stress on the transmission of monetary policy shocks in Canada. The model used is a threshold vector autoregression in which a regime change occurs if financial stress conditions cross a critical threshold. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial stability, Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): C, C0, C01, E, E5, E50, G, G0, G01
The Fisher BCPI: The Bank of Canada’s New Commodity Price Index Staff Discussion Paper 2010-6 Ilan Kolet, Ryan Macdonald The prices of commodities produced in Canada have important implications for the performance of the Canadian economy and the conduct of monetary policy. The authors explain an important change to the methodology used to construct the Bank of Canada commodity price index (BCPI). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices JEL Code(s): C, C1, E, E3
Relative Price Movements and Labour Productivity in Canada: A VAR Analysis Staff Discussion Paper 2010-5 Michael Dolega, David Dupuis, Lise Pichette In recent years, the Canadian economy has been affected by strong movements in relative prices brought about by the surging costs of energy and non-energy commodities, with significant implications for the terms of trade, the exchange rate, and the allocation of resources across Canadian sectors and regions. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Labour markets, Productivity, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E2, E23, E24, O, O4, O47
Prospects for Global Current Account Rebalancing Staff Discussion Paper 2010-4 Kimberly Beaton, Carlos De Resende, René Lalonde, Stephen Snudden The authors use the Bank of Canada's version of the Global Economy Model, a multi-country, multi-sector dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model with an active banking system (the BoC-GEM-FIN), to study the evolution of global current account balances following the recent global financial crisis. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Balance of payments and components, Business fluctuations and cycles, International topics, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, F, F0, F01, F3, F32
Le pouvoir de prévision des indices PMI Staff Discussion Paper 2010-3 Claudia Godbout, Jocelyn Jacob The forecast of world economic growth plays a key role in the conduct of Canadian monetary policy. In this context, the authors study the usefulness of the monthly Purchasing Managers’ Indexes (PMIs) in predicting short-term real GDP growth in the euro area, Japan, the United Kingdom, and China, as well as in the world economy. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E3, E37, F, F4, F47
On the Advantages of Disaggregated Data: Insights from Forecasting the U.S. Economy in a Data-Rich Environment Staff Working Paper 2010-10 Nikita Perevalov, Philipp Maier The good forecasting performance of factor models has been well documented in the literature. While many studies focus on a very limited set of variables (typically GDP and inflation), this study evaluates forecasting performance at disaggregated levels to examine the source of the improved forecasting accuracy, relative to a simple autoregressive model. We use the latest revision of over 100 U.S. time series over the period 1974-2009 (monthly and quarterly data). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C5, C50, C53, E, E3, E37, E4, E47
Alternative Optimized Monetary Policy Rules in Multi-Sector Small Open Economies: The Role of Real Rigidities Staff Working Paper 2010-9 Carlos De Resende, Ali Dib, Maral Kichian Inflation-targeting central banks around the world often state their inflation objectives with regard to the consumer price index (CPI). Yet the literature on optimal monetary policy based on models with nominal rigidities and more than one sector suggests that CPI inflation is not always the best choice from a social welfare perspective. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Inflation targets, Inflation: costs and benefits, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): E, E4, E5, E52, F, F3, F4
Introducing the Bank of Canada's Projection Model for the Global Economy Technical Report No. 99 Jeannine Bailliu, Patrick Blagrave, James Rossiter To complement its existing set of tools to analyze and forecast developments in the global economy, the Bank of Canada recently developed a version of the Global Projection Model (GPM) jointly with staff at the International Monetary Fund. Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C6, C68, E, E2, E27, E3, E37, F, F0, F01
Price Level Targeting: What Is the Right Price? Staff Working Paper 2010-8 Malik Shukayev, Alexander Ueberfeldt Various papers have suggested that Price-Level targeting is a welfare improving policy relative to Inflation targeting. From a practical standpoint, this raises an important yet unanswered question: What is the optimal price index to target? Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E5, E52
Time Variation in Okun's Law: A Canada and U.S. Comparison Staff Working Paper 2010-7 Kimberly Beaton This article investigates the stability of Okun's law for Canada and the United States using a time varying parameter approach. Time variation is modeled as driftless random walks and is estimated using the median unbiased estimator approach developed by Stock and Watson (1998). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Labour markets JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, J, J0, J00