D - Microeconomics

• Debt Overhang and Deleveraging in the US Household Sector: Gauging the Impact on Consumption

  Staff Working Paper 2015-47 Bruno Albuquerque, Georgi Krustev

  Using a novel dataset for the US states, this paper examines whether household debt and the protracted debt deleveraging help explain the dismal performance of US consumption since 2007, in the aftermath of the housing bubble.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Econometric and statistical methods, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C1, C13, C2, C23, C5, C52, D, D1, D12, H, H3, H31
• December 15, 2015

  Indebted Households and Potential Vulnerabilities for the Canadian Financial System: A Microdata Analysis

  Financial System Review - December 2015 Gino Cateau, Tom Roberts, Jie Zhou

  Over the past decade, an increasing proportion of households in Canada have become highly indebted relative to their income. These highly indebted households now hold one-fifth of total Canadian household debt.Simulations suggest that this greater degree of household indebtedness could exacerbate the impact of shocks to income and interest rates relative to the pre-crisis period. However, an assessment of the vulnerability of the Canadian financial system should, among other factors, account for the ability of Canadian financial institutions to withstand losses from the household sector.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Financial stability, Housing, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): D, D1, D14, E, E5, E51

• 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