Interest rates

• August 18, 2011

  Introducing Multiple Interest rates in ToTEM

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2011 José Dorich, Rhys R. Mendes, Yang Zhang

  This article describes changes to the structure of ToTEM—the Bank of Canada’s main model for projection and policy analysis—that allow an independent role for long-term interest rates, as well as for the risk spreads that lead to differences in the interest rates faced by households, firms and the government. These changes broaden the range of policy questions that the model can address and improve its ability to explain data. The authors use the model to simulate the effects of shocks to the risk spreads on interest rates similar to those that occurred during the recent financial crisis. They also use the model to assess the macroeconomic impact of higher requirements for bank capital and liquidity.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Economic models, Financial system regulation and policies, Interest rates

• The Private Equity Premium Puzzle Revisited

  Staff Working Paper 2011-6 Katya Kartashova

  In this paper, I extend the results of Moskowitz and Vissing-Jørgensen (2002) on the returns to entrepreneurial investments in the United States. First, following the authors’ methodology I replicate the original findings from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) for the period 1989–1998 and show that the returns to private and public equity are similar.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Interest rates, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): G, G1, G11, G12, G2, G24, G3, G31, G32
• February 17, 2011

  Competition in the Canadian Mortgage Market

  Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2010-2011 Jason Allen

  This article begins with a brief examination of the Canadian mortgage market, focusing on the market’s evolution following changes to the Bank Act in 1992, which allowed chartered banks to enter the trust business, and the subsequent entrance of virtual banks and mortgage brokers.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Interest rates, Market structure and pricing, Monetary policy transmission

• Has the Inclusion of Forward-Looking Statements in Monetary Policy Communications Made the Bank of Canada More Transparent?

  Staff Discussion Paper 2010-15 Christine Fay, Toni Gravelle

  To investigate the extent to which the transparency of the Bank of Canada's monetary policy has improved, the authors examine empirically – over the period 30 October 2000 to 31 May 2007 – the reaction of Canadian financial markets to official Bank communications, and in particular their reaction to the recent inclusion of forward-looking policy-rate guidance in these communications.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Interest rates, Monetary policy communications, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E58

• Evaluating the Effect of the Bank of Canada's Conditional Commitment Policy

  Staff Discussion Paper 2010-11 Zhongfang He

  The author evaluates the effect of the Bank of Canada's conditional commitment regarding the target overnight rate on longer-term market interest rates by taking into account the relationship between interest rates, inflation, and unemployment rates.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Interest rates, Monetary policy implementation, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E5, E6

• How Changes in Oil Prices Affect the Macroeconomy

  Staff Working Paper 2009-33 Brian DePratto, Carlos De Resende, Philipp Maier

  We estimate a New Keynesian general-equilibrium open economy model to examine how changes in oil prices affect the macroeconomy. Our model allows oil price changes to be transmitted through temporary demand and supply channels (affecting the output gap), as well as through persistent supply side effects (affecting trend growth).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Interest rates, Monetary policy transmission, Potential output, Productivity JEL Code(s): F, F4, F41, Q, Q4, Q43
• November 11, 2008

  The Market Impact of Forward-Looking Policy Statements: Transparency vs. Predictability

  Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2008-2009 Christine Fay, Toni Gravelle

  Central banks continuously strive to improve how they communicate to financial markets and the public in order to increase transparency. For this reason, many central banks have begun to include guidance on the policy rate in the form of forward-looking statements in their communications. This article examines the debate over the usefulness of providing such statements from both theoretical and empirical standpoints. The evidence presented here suggests that the use of forward-looking statements in Bank of Canada communications has made the Bank more predictable, but not necessarily more transparent.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Central bank research, Interest rates, Monetary policy transmission

• McCallum Rules, Exchange Rates, and the Term Structure of Interest Rates

  Staff Working Paper 2008-43 Antonio Diez de los Rios

  McCallum (1994a) proposes a monetary rule where policymakers have some tendency to resist rapid changes in exchange rates to explain the forward premium puzzle.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rates, Interest rates, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, F, F3, F31, G, G1, G12, G15

• Combining Canadian Interest-Rate Forecasts

  Staff Working Paper 2008-34 David Bolder, Yuliya Romanyuk

  Model risk is a constant danger for financial economists using interest-rate forecasts for the purposes of monetary policy analysis, portfolio allocations, or risk-management decisions. Use of multiple models does not necessarily solve the problem as it greatly increases the work required and still leaves the question "which model forecast should one use?"

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Interest rates JEL Code(s): C, C1, C11, E, E4, E43, E47

• Macroeconomic Determinants of the Term Structure of Corporate Spreads

  Staff Working Paper 2008-29 Jun Yang

  We investigate the macroeconomic determinants of corporate spreads using a no-arbitrage technique. Structural shocks are identified by a New-Keynesian model. Treasury bonds are priced in an affine model with time-varying risk premia.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Debt management, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E44, G, G1, G12