December 8, 2005 Towards a Made-in-Canada Monetary Policy: Closing the Circle Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2005-2006 John Chant When the Bank of Canada was first established in 1935, it had two very different models to choose from—the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve—in terms of the instruments that it might use for implementing monetary policy. Although some aspects of the Bank's early monetary policy practices, including the role of discount facilities and moral suasion, reflect the British example, other important differences shaped a distinctly Canadian approach. Chant describes what he argues are distinctively Canadian innovations: the Bank's favoured means of managing chartered bank liquidity through transfers of government deposits, the adoption of lagged reserve requirements, and the two periods in which it decided to float the Bank Rate. He also describes the series of bold initiatives that were undertaken in the 1990s with regard to simplifying clearing and settlement procedures, reducing reserve requirements, and setting the Bank's target for the overnight rate. Chant suggests that these changes have improved market efficiency, reduced risk and uncertainty, and strengthened the Bank's influence over its short-term operating target. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Monetary policy implementation
December 6, 2005 The Bank of Canada: An Illustrated History This volume features interesting images and anecdotes about Canada's central bank and its place in Canadian society from 1935 until the present. Content Type(s): Publications, Books and monographs, Souvenir books
December 6, 2005 Exchange Rate Determinants and Economic Impacts Conference held on 6 and 7 December 2005 (papers in unedited, electronic format only) Content Type(s): Conferences and workshops
December 6, 2005 Bank of Canada raises overnight rate target by 1/4 percentage point to 3 1/4 per cent Media Relations Ottawa, Ontario The Bank of Canada today announced that it is raising its target for the overnight rate by one-quarter of one percentage point to 3 1/4 per cent. Content Type(s): Press, Press releases
An Evaluation of MLE in a Model of the Nonlinear Continuous-Time Short-Term Interest Rate Staff Working Paper 2005-45 Ingrid Lo The author compares the performance of three Gaussian approximation methods - by Nowman (1997), Shoji and Ozaki (1998), and Yu and Phillips (2001) - in estimating a model of the nonlinear continuous-time short-term interest rate. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Interest rates JEL Code(s): C, C1, E, E4
Forecasting Core Inflation in Canada: Should We Forecast the Aggregate or the Components? Staff Working Paper 2005-44 Frédérick Demers, Annie De Champlain The authors investigate the behaviour of core inflation in Canada to analyze three key issues: (i) homogeneity in the response of various price indexes to demand or real exchange rate shocks relative to the response of aggregate core inflation; (ii) whether using disaggregate data helps to improve the forecast of core inflation; and (iii) whether using monthly data helps to improve quarterly forecasts. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices JEL Code(s): C, C5, E, E3, E37
The 1975–78 Anti-Inflation Program in Retrospect Staff Working Paper 2005-43 John Sargent The author provides an overview of the 1975–78 Anti-Inflation Program (AIP), in a background document prepared for a seminar organized by the Bank of Canada to mark the AIP's 30th anniversary. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Credibility, Fiscal policy, Inflation and prices, Inflation targets, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E5, E52, E6, E63, E64, E65
Order Submission: The Choice between Limit and Market Orders Staff Working Paper 2005-42 Ingrid Lo, Stephen Sapp Most financial markets allow investors to submit both limit and market orders, but it is not always clear what affects the choice of order type. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rates, Financial institutions, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D4, G, G1
December 2, 2005 From Flapper to Bluestocking: What Happened to the Young Woman of Wellington Street? Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2005-2006 John F. Helliwell Helliwell traces the changes that have occurred at the Bank of Canada since the early 1960s, when he first began a long and extensive relationship with the institution and its staff. He begins with his work on the Royal Commission on Banking and Finance (the Porter Commission) and continues over the next 40 years, giving particular focus to the Bank's analytic and research activities. Although he is careful to note the benefits of alternative analytical and information-gathering techniques, such as the extensive mail and direct interview survey that he and his colleagues conducted as part of the Royal Commission, Helliwell devotes most of his attention to the Bank's econometric modelling efforts, starting with RDX1 and RDX2 in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He cites some of the internal, as well as external, obstacles that had to be overcome as the Bank's modelling efforts advanced, and how shifting trends in the economics profession have sometimes posed a challenge. Helliwell concludes that these developments helped the Bank to come of age and take its place in the front ranks of the world's evidence-based policy-research institutions. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Central bank research, Economic models
Modelling and Forecasting Housing Investment: The Case of Canada Staff Working Paper 2005-41 Frédérick Demers The author proposes and evaluates econometric models that try to explain and forecast real quarterly housing expenditures in Canada. Structural and leading-indicator models of the Canadian housing sector are described. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Economic models JEL Code(s): E, E2, E27, R, R2, R21