Staff research

• April 30, 2019

  Research Update - April 2019

  This monthly newsletter features the latest research publications by Bank of Canada economists including external publications and working papers published on the Bank of Canada’s website.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Research newsletters

• Financial Distress and Hedging: Evidence from Canadian Oil Firms

  Staff Discussion Paper 2019-4 Kun Mo, Farrukh Suvankulov, Sophie Griffiths

  The paper explores the link between financial distress and the commodity price hedging behaviour of Canadian oil firms.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Firm dynamics JEL Code(s): G, G3, G32, Q, Q4, Q40

• Disentangling the Factors Driving Housing Resales

  Staff Analytical Note 2019-12 Mikael Khan, Taylor Webley

  We use a recently developed model and loan-level microdata to decompose movements in housing resales since 2015. We find that fundamental factors, namely housing affordability and full-time employment, have had offsetting effects on resales over our study period.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, Housing, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, E, E2, R, R2, R21

• The Neutral Rate in Canada: 2019 Update

  Staff Analytical Note 2019-11 Thomas J. Carter, Xin Scott Chen, José Dorich

  This note provides an update on Bank of Canada staff’s assessment of the Canadian neutral rate. The neutral rate is the policy rate needed to keep output at its potential level and inflation at target once the effects of any cyclical shocks have dissipated. This medium- to long-run concept serves as a benchmark for gauging the degree of monetary stimulus provided by a given policy setting.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Economic models, Interest rates, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E43, E5, E50, E52, E58, F, F4, F41

• Potential Output in Canada: 2019 Reassessment

  Staff Analytical Note 2019-10 Dany Brouillette, Julien Champagne, Carol Khoury, Natalia Kyui, Jeffrey Mollins, Youngmin Park

  Potential output is expected to grow on average at 1.8 per cent over 2019–21 and at 1.9 per cent in 2022. While the contribution of trend labour input to potential output growth is expected to decrease between 2019 and 2022, the contribution of trend labour productivity is projected to increase.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Labour markets, Potential output, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E0, E00, E2, E22, E23, E24, E3, E37, E6

• Could Canadian Bond Funds Add Stress to the Financial System?

  Staff Analytical Note 2019-9 Rohan Arora, Guillaume Bédard-Pagé, Guillaume Ouellet Leblanc, Ryan Shotlander

  We create a hypothetical scenario to study the role bond funds play in intensifying shocks to the financial system. Using data from 2018 and 2007, we find that bond funds play a larger role now than they did in the past.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Financial markets, Financial stability JEL Code(s): G, G1, G2, G20, G23

• Labor Mobility in a Monetary Union

  Staff Working Paper 2019-15 Daniela Hauser, Martin Seneca

  The optimal currency literature has stressed the importance of labor mobility as a precondition for the success of monetary unions. But only a few studies formally link labor mobility to macroeconomic adjustment and policy. In this paper, we study macroeconomic dynamics and optimal monetary policy in an economy with cyclical labor flows across two distinct regions that share trade links and a common monetary framework.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, Labour markets, Monetary policy framework, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E5, E52, F, F4

• Bond Funds and Fixed-Income Market Liquidity: A Stress-Testing Approach

  Technical Report No. 115 Rohan Arora, Guillaume Bédard-Pagé, Guillaume Ouellet Leblanc, Ryan Shotlander

  This report provides a detailed technical description of a stress test model for investment funds called Ceto.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial markets, Financial stability JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12, G14, G2, G20, G23

• Firm-level Investment Under Imperfect Capital Markets in Ukraine

  Staff Working Paper 2019-14 Oleksandr Shcherbakov

  This paper develops and estimates a model of firm-level fixed capital investment when firms face borrowing constraints.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Economic models, Firm dynamics JEL Code(s): C, C6, C61, C63, D, D2, D24, G, G3, G31

• Global Commodity Markets and Rebalancing in China: The Case of Copper

  Staff Discussion Paper 2019-3 Jeannine Bailliu, Doga Bilgin, Kun Mo, Kurt Niquidet, Benjamin Sawatzky

  Given that China accounts for about half of global copper consumption, it is reasonable to expect that any significant change in Chinese copper consumption will have an impact on the global market.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, International topics JEL Code(s): O, O1, O13, O14, Q, Q0, Q02