Staff research, Publications

• Filtering for Current Analysis

  Staff Working Paper 2002-28 Simon van Norden

  This paper shows how existing band-pass filtering techniques and their extension can be applied to the common current-analysis problem of estimating current trends or cycles.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Potential output JEL Code(s): C, C1

• Habit Formation and the Persistence of Monetary Shocks

  Staff Working Paper 2002-27 Hafedh Bouakez, Emanuela Cardia, Francisco Ruge-Murcia

  This paper studies the persistent effects of monetary shocks on output. Previous empirical literature documents this persistence, but standard general-equilibrium models with sticky prices fail to generate output responses beyond the duration of nominal contracts.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E3, E4, E5

• Nominal Rigidity, Desired Markup Variations, and Real Exchange Rate Persistence

  Staff Working Paper 2002-26 Hafedh Bouakez

  This paper develops and estimates a dynamic general-equilibrium sticky-price model that accounts for real exchange rate persistence.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Exchange rates, Market structure and pricing, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): F, F3, F31, F4, F41

• Nominal Rigidities and Monetary Policy in Canada Since 1981

  Staff Working Paper 2002-25 Ali Dib

  This paper develops and estimates a dynamic, stochastic, general-equilibrium model with price and wage stickiness to analyze monetary policy in Canada.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E32, E5, E52

• Financial Structure and Economic Growth: A Non-Technical Survey

  Staff Working Paper 2002-24 Veronika Dolar, Césaire Meh

  There is a large body of literature that studies the relationship between financial structure (that is, the degree to which the financial system is either market- or intermediary-based) and long-run economic growth.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Development economics, Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial markets, Financial services JEL Code(s): F, F3, F36, G, G0, G00, G1, G14, G2, G21, K, K2, K22, O, O1, O16

• How to Improve Inflation Targeting at the Bank of Canada

  Staff Working Paper 2002-23 Nicholas Rowe

  This paper shows that if the Bank of Canada is optimally adjusting its monetary policy instrument in response to inflation indicators to target 2 per cent inflation at a two-year horizon, then deviations of inflation from 2 per cent represent the Bank's forecast errors, and should be uncorrelated with its information set, which includes two-year lagged values of the instrument and the indicators. Positive or negative correlations are evidence of systematic errors in monetary policy.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Inflation targets, Monetary and financial indicators, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): E, E5
• August 21, 2002

  Monetary Policy and Uncertainty

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2002 Paul Jenkins, David Longworth

  Central banks must cope with considerable uncertainty about what will happen in the economy when formulating monetary policy. This article describes the different types of uncertainty that arise and looks at examples of uncertainty that the Bank has recently encountered. It then reviews the strategies employed by the Bank to deal with this problem. The other articles in this special issue focus on three of these major strategies.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Research Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty, Monetary policy framework
• August 21, 2002

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2002

  

  Cover page

  Welland Canal Note

  The note, signed by Merritt as company president, measures 184 mm by 82 mm and forms part of the National Currency Collection, Bank of Canada.

  Photography by James Zagon, Ottawa.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review
• August 20, 2002

  Information and Analysis for Monetary Policy: Coming to a Decision

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2002 Tiff Macklem

  This article outlines one of the Bank's key approaches to dealing with the uncertainty that surrounds decisions on monetary policy: the consideration of a wide range of information from a variety of sources. More specifically, it describes the information and analysis that the monetary policy decision-makers—the Governing Council of the Bank of Canada—receive in the two or three weeks leading up to a decision on the setting of the policy rate—the target overnight interest rate. The article also describes how the Governing Council reaches this decision.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Research Topic(s): Monetary and financial indicators, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation
• August 19, 2002

  Models in Policy-Making

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2002 Donald Coletti, Stephen Murchison

  This article examines another strategy in the Bank's approach to dealing with an uncertain world: the use of carefully articulated models to produce economic forecasts and to examine the implications of the various risks to those forecasts. Economic models are deliberate simplifications of a complex world that allow economists to make predictions that are reasonably accurate and that can be easily understood and communicated. By using several models, based on competing paradigms, the Bank minimizes policy errors that could result from relying on one view of the world and one philosophy of model design. The authors review some of the models currently used at the Bank, as well as the role of judgment in the projection process.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Research Topic(s): Economic models