Archives

Working Papers

  1. A Modified P*-Model of Inflation Based on M1

    Working Paper 1996-15 - Joseph Atta-Mensah

    This paper examines the performance of M1 in an indicator-model of inflation over time horizons as long as 16 quarters into the future.

    Topics: Economic models
  2. L'endettement du Canada et ses effets sur les taux d'intérêt réels de long terme

    Working Paper 1996-14 - Jean-François Fillion

    This paper examines the effects that Canada's indebtedness has on Canadian real long-term interest rates, using the vector error-correction model (VECM). Our results show that there is a strongly cointegrated relationship between real interest rates in Canada, U.S. real interest rates, and Canadian public and external debt ratios.

    Topics: Fiscal Policy; Interest rates
  3. Speculative Behaviour, Regime-Switching and Stock Market Crashes

    Working Paper 1996-13 - Simon van Norden, Huntley Schaller

    This paper uses regime-switching econometrics to study stock market crashes and to explore the ability of two very different economic explanations to account for historical crashes. The first explanation is based on historical accounts of "manias and panics."

    Topics: Financial markets
  4. The Commodity-Price Cycle and Regional Economic Performance in Canada

    Working Paper 1996-12 - Mario Lefebvre, Stephen S. Poloz

    This paper attempts to provide one interpretation of the broad regional economic history of Canada since the early 1970s. As the title of the paper suggests, we believe that, to a significant degree, regional diversity in economic performance reflects movements in Canada's terms of trade, which very frequently are tied to developments in world commodity markets.

    Topics: Regional economic developments
  5. Avoiding the Pitfalls: Can Regime-Switching Tests Detect Bubbles?

    Working Paper 1996-11 - Simon van Norden, Robert Vigfusson

    Work on testing for bubbles has caused much debate, much of which has focussed on methodology. Monte Carlo simulations reported in Evans (1991) showed that standard tests for unit roots and cointegration frequently reject the presence of bubbles even when such bubbles are present by construction. Evans referred to this problem as the pitfall of testing for bubbles.

    Topics: Econometric and statistical methods
  6. Unit-Root Tests and Excess Returns

    Working Paper 1996-10 - Marie-Josée Godbout, Simon van Norden

    Several recent papers have presented evidence from foreign exchange and other markets suggesting that the log of excess returns can be characterized as first-order integrated processes (I(1)). This contrasts sharply with the "conventional" wisdom that log prices are integrated of order one I(1) and that log returns should therefore be integrated of order zero I(0), and even more sharply with the view that past returns have no ability to predict future returns (weak market efficiency).

    Topics: Econometric and statistical methods
  7. Does Inflation Uncertainty Vary with the Level of Inflation?

    Working Paper 1996-9 - Allan Crawford, Marcel Kasumovich

    The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that inflation uncertainty increases at higher levels of inflation. Our analysis is based on the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) class of models, which allow the conditional variance of the error term to be time-varying. Since this variance is a proxy for inflation uncertainty, a positive relationship between the conditional variance and inflation would be interpreted as evidence that inflation uncertainty increases with the level of inflation.

    Topics: Inflation and prices; Uncertainty and monetary policy
  8. Interpreting Money-Supply and Interest-Rate Shocks as Monetary-Policy Shocks

    Working Paper 1996-8 - Marcel Kasumovich

    In this paper two shocks are analysed using Canadian data: a money-supply shock ("M-shock") and an interest-rate shock ("R-shock"). Money-supply shocks are derived using long-run restrictions based on long-run propositions of monetary theory. Thus, an M-shock is represented by an orthogonalized innovation in the trend shared by money and prices.

    Topics: Monetary and financial indicators; Transmission of monetary policy
  9. An Econometric Examination of the Trend Unemployment Rate in Canada

    Working Paper 1996-7 - Denise Côté, Doug Hostland

    This paper attempts to identify the trend unemployment rate, an empirical concept, using cointegration theory. The authors examine whether there is a cointegrating relationship between the observed unemployment rate and various structural factors, focussing neither on the non-accelerating-inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) nor on the natural rate of unemployment, but rather on the trend unemployment rate, which they define in terms of cointegration.

    Topics: Labour markets
  10. Provincial Credit Ratings in Canada: An Ordered Probit Analysis

    Working Paper 1996-6 - Stella Cheung

    The author estimates the relationship between the provincial credit ratings, as assessed by Standard & Poor's, and a number of economic variables, using the ordered probit methodology. All the variables in her estimation prove to be significant. In particular, she finds that downgrades take place at almost the same speed at different levels of the debt-to-GDP ratio, based on a pooled sample of nine provinces.

    Topics: Financial markets
  11. A Distant-Early-Warning Model of Inflation Based on M1 Disequilibria

    A vector error-correction model (VECM) that forecasts inflation between the current quarter and eight quarters ahead is found to provide significant leading information about inflation. The model focusses on the effects of deviations of M1 from its long-run demand but also includes, among other things, the influence of the exchange rate, a simple measure of the output gap and past prices.

    Topics: Economic models; Monetary aggregates; Transmission of monetary policy
  12. Overnight Rate Innovations as a Measure of Monetary Policy Shocks in Vector Autoregressions

    Working Paper 1996-4 - Jamie Armour, Walter Engert, Ben Fung

    The authors examine the Bank of Canada's overnight rate as a measure of monetary policy in vector autoregression (VAR) models. Since the time series of the Bank's current measure of the overnight rate begins only in 1971, the authors splice it to day loan rate observations to obtain a sufficiently long period of data.

    Topics: Economic models; Monetary and financial indicators
  13. Regime-Switching Models: A Guide to the Bank of Canada Gauss Procedures

    Working Paper 1996-3 - Simon van Norden, Robert Vigfusson

    This paper is a user's guide to a set of Gauss procedures developed at the Bank of Canada for estimating regime-switching models.

    Topics: Econometric and statistical methods
  14. Decomposing U.S. Nominal Interest Rates into Expected Inflation and Ex Ante Real Interest Rates Using Structural VAR Methodology

    Working Paper 1996-2 - Pierre St-Amant

    In this paper, the author uses structural vector autoregression methodology to decompose U.S. nominal interest rates into an expected inflation component and an ex ante real interest rate component. He identifies inflation expectations and ex ante real interest rate shocks by assuming that nominal interest rates and inflation expectations move one-for-one in the long-run—they are cointegrated (1,1)—and that the real interest rate is stationary.

    Topics: Interest rates; International topics
  15. Switching Between Chartists and Fundamentalists: A Markov Regime-Switching Approach

    Working Paper 1996-1 - Robert Vigfusson

    Since the early 1980s, models based on economic fundamentals have been poor at explaining the movements in the exchange rate (Messe 1990). In response to this problem, Frankel and Froot (1988) developed a model that uses two approaches to forecast the exchange rate: the fundamentalist approach, which bases the forecast on economic fundamentals, and the chartist approach, which bases the forecast on the past behaviour of the exchange rate.

    Topics: Financial markets
Copyright © 1995 - 2013, Bank of Canada. Terms of Use.