Economic models

• Uncertainty and the Specificity of Human Capital

  Staff Working Paper 2007-57 Martin Gervais, Igor Livshits, Césaire Meh

  This paper studies the choice between general and specific human capital. A trade-off arises because general human capital, while less productive, can easily be reallocated across firms.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): D, D9, D92, J, J2, J24, J4, J41, J6, J62

• The Bank of Canada's Version of the Global Economy Model (BoC-GEM)

  Technical Report No. 98 René Lalonde, Dirk Muir

  The Bank of Canada's version of the Global Economy Model (BoC-GEM) is derived from the model created at the International Monetary Fund by Douglas Laxton (IMF) and Paolo Pesenti (Federal Reserve Bank of New York and National Bureau of Economic Research).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C6, C68, E, E2, E27, E3, E37, F, F3, F32, F4, F47

• Canada's Pioneering Experience with a Flexible Exchange Rate in the 1950s: (Hard) Lessons Learned for Monetary Policy in a Small Open Economy

  Staff Working Paper 2007-45 Michael Bordo, Ali Dib, Lawrence L. Schembri

  This paper revisits Canada's pioneering experience with floating exchange rate over the period 1950–1962. It examines whether the floating rate was the best option for Canada in the 1950s by developing and estimating a New Keynesian small open economy model of the Canadian economy.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Exchange rates JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E37, F, F3, F31, F32, N, N1
• June 17, 2007

  Trend Labour Supply in Canada: Implications of Demographic Shifts and the Increasing Labour Force Attachment of Women

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2007 Russell Barnett

  While demographic change has been an ongoing process in Canada, labour market implications of an aging population will become more acute in coming years. This article discusses the anticipated slowing in the growth of trend labour input over the coming decades with the aging of the baby boomers, declining fertility rates, and the stabilization of the labour force attachment of women. As the pool of labour shrinks, employers and governments will be looking for ways to address barriers to continued labour force participation and firms will have a greater incentive to find ways of improving labour productivity.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Economic models, Labour markets, Potential output

• Should Central Banks Adjust Their Target Horizons in Response to House-Price Bubbles?

  Staff Discussion Paper 2007-4 Meenakshi Basant Roi, Rhys R. Mendes

  The authors investigate the implications of house-price bubbles for the optimal inflation-target horizon using a dynamic general-equilibrium model with credit frictions, house-price bubbles, and small open-economy features. They find that, given the distribution of shocks and inflation persistence over the past 25 years, the optimal target horizon for Canada tends to be at the lower […]

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Credit and credit aggregates, Economic models, Inflation targets, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E44, E5, E52, E58, E6, E61

• Oil Price Movements and the Global Economy: A Model-Based Assessment

  Staff Working Paper 2007-34 Selim Elekdag, René Lalonde, Douglas Laxton, Dirk Muir, Paolo Pesenti

  We develop a five-region version (Canada, an oil exporter, the United States, emerging Asia and Japan plus the euro area) of the Global Economy Model (GEM) encompassing production and trade of crude oil, and use it to study the international transmission mechanism of shocks that drive oil prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Inflation and prices, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E6, E66, F, F3, F32, F4, F47

• Does Indexation Bias the Estimated Frequency of Price Adjustment?

  Staff Working Paper 2007-15 Maral Kichian, Oleksiy Kryvtsov

  We assess the implications of price indexation for estimated frequency of price adjustment in sticky price models of business cycles. These models predominantly assume that non-reoptimized prices are indexed to lagged or average inflation.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Economic models, Inflation and prices JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E37

• Technology Shocks and Business Cycles: The Role of Processing Stages and Nominal Rigidities

  Staff Working Paper 2007-7 Louis Phaneuf, Nooman Rebei

  This paper develops and estimates a dynamic general equilibrium model that realistically accounts for an input-output linkage between firms operating at different stages of processing. Firms face technological change which is specific to their processing stage and charge new prices according to stage-specific Calvo-probabilities.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32