Staff research

After the war in the Middle East began, futures markets hinted at how long oil prices could stay above their pre-war levels. Options on those futures further reveal how investors see the range and balance of risks around future oil prices—which helps central banks assess risks to inflation.

This paper develops Monte Carlo likelihood-ratio tests for determining the number of regimes in Markov switching models. Unlike most existing procedures, which focus on testing one versus two regimes, the proposed methods allow testing an arbitrary number of regimes. They are valid in finite samples, robust to identification problems, and applicable to nonstationary, multivariate, and Markov switching GARCH models.

This note uses detailed expenditure data to decompose Canadian inflation into supply- and demand-driven components. The analysis sheds light on the drivers of post-pandemic inflation and shows that monetary policy primarily affects and responds to demand-driven inflation.

The rise and transformation of Canadian cash ETFs highlight that banking liquidity regulation affects more than bank resilience. By changing the relative attractiveness of deposits and securities, it can shape where asset managers allocate their cash across the financial system.

This note examines whether central clearing of repos benefits non-dealer participants in Canadian fixed-income markets. While prior research highlights lower funding and balance-sheet costs for dealers, less is known about client effects. Understanding these broader implications is important for assessing central clearing’s contribution to market efficiency and resilience.

How do import tariffs affect retail prices? We combine daily product-level posted prices from seven major Canadian retailers with product-level tariff exposure to estimate tariff effects. Prices of tariffed goods rose gradually, peaking at 6% after three months, implying pass-through of roughly one quarter of the 25% tariff.

This paper studies how a central bank should design a CBDC when private payment providers collect and monetize transaction data. It characterizes the optimal CBDC’s pricing and data policy, and shows how its effects on private payment use and total data depend on market power and data externalities.

We construct a macroeconomic estimate of total AI production in the United States, combining inference and R&D/training activities with quality adjustments to account for algorithmic progress. We then develop a nascent framework for "AI GDP" that tracks the AI economy as a coherent whole, complementing traditional national accounts.

Businesses that can’t easily access credit experience slower growth. Indigenous-owned firms are less likely than other firms in Canada to use conventional lending products—like loans or lines of credit from banks. We look at why Indigenous-owned businesses may face barriers to accessing credit.

As interest in tokenization grows, so too does the focus on the design of tokenized systems. Different approaches—such as centralized or decentralized systems—could achieve similar outcomes. But the choice of design involves consequential trade-offs that shape how the entire ecosystem evolves.