Staff research

• A Modified P*-Model of Inflation Based on M1

  Staff 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.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): E, E3, E37

• L'endettement du Canada et ses effets sur les taux d'intérêt réels de long terme

  Staff 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.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Fiscal policy, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, F, F3, F30, H, H6, H60

• The Bank of Canada's New Quarterly Projection Model, Part 4. A Semi-Structural Method to Estimate Potential Output: Combining Economic Theory with a Time-Series Filter

  Technical Report No. 77 Leo Butler

  The level of potential output plays a central role in the Bank of Canada's new Quarterly Projection Model (QPM). This report, the fourth in a series documenting QPM, describes a general method to measure potential output, as well as its implementation in the QPM system.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Research Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): C, C5, C51, E, E2, E23

• Speculative Behaviour, Regime-Switching and Stock Market Crashes

  Staff 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."

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Financial markets JEL Code(s): C, C4, C40, E, E4, E44, G, G1, G12

• The Commodity-Price Cycle and Regional Economic Performance in Canada

  Staff 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.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32

• Avoiding the Pitfalls: Can Regime-Switching Tests Detect Bubbles?

  Staff 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.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, C5, C52

• Unit-Root Tests and Excess Returns

  Staff 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).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C1, C12, F, F3, F31

• Does Inflation Uncertainty Vary with the Level of Inflation?

  Staff 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.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): C, C5, C52, E, E3, E31

• Interpreting Money-Supply and Interest-Rate Shocks as Monetary-Policy Shocks

  Staff 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.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Monetary and financial indicators, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E5, E51

• Excess Volatility and Speculative Bubbles in the Canadian Dollar: Real or Imagined?

  Technical Report No. 76 John Murray, Simon van Norden, Robert Vigfusson

  Greater intervention by the public sector is often proposed as a solution to the increased speculation and excessive price volatility thought to characterize today's competitive world financial system.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Research Topic(s): Exchange rates JEL Code(s): C, C4, C40, F, F3, F31