C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods

• Inflation Changes, Yield Spreads, and Threshold Effects

  Staff Working Paper 2002-40 Greg Tkacz

  Using interest rate yield spreads to explain changes in inflation, we investigate whether such relationships can be modelled using two-regime threshold models.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Interest rates JEL Code(s): C, C5, C51, E, E3, E31

• Oil-Price Shocks and Retail Energy Prices in Canada

  Staff Working Paper 2002-38 Marwan Chacra

  The effects of global energy-price shocks on retail energy prices in Canada are examined. More specifically, the author looks at the response of the consumer price indexes for gasoline, heating oil, natural gas, and electricity in Canada to movements in world crude oil prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, C5, C51, C53, Q, Q4, Q40

• An Eclectic Approach to Estimating U.S. Potential GDP

  Staff Working Paper 2002-36 Marc-André Gosselin, René Lalonde

  The authors describe the principal results obtained from a new method applied to the estimation of potential U.S. GDP.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Econometric and statistical methods, Potential output JEL Code(s): C, C3, C32, E, E2, E23, E3, E32

• Supply Shocks and Real Exchange Rate Dynamics: Canadian Evidence

  Staff Working Paper 2002-31 Céline Gauthier, David Tessier

  In this paper, we study the impact of supply shocks on the Canadian real exchange rate. We specify a structural vector-error-correction model that links the real exchange rate to different fundamentals.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Exchange rates JEL Code(s): C, C3, C32, F, F3, F31

• Exponentials, Polynomials, and Fourier Series: More Yield Curve Modelling at the Bank of Canada

  Staff Working Paper 2002-29 David Bolder, Scott Gusba

  This paper continues the work started by Bolder and Stréliski (1999) and considers two alternative classes of models for extracting zero-coupon and forward rates from a set of observed Government of Canada bond and treasury-bill prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): C, C0, C6, E, E4, G, G1

• 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

• Evaluating the Quarterly Projection Model: A Preliminary Investigation

  Staff Working Paper 2002-20 Robert Amano, Kim McPhail, Hope Pioro, Andrew Rennison

  This paper summarizes the results of recent research evaluating the Bank of Canada's Quarterly Projection Model (QPM).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): C, C5, C52, E, E1, E17, E3, E30, E37

• Towards a More Complete Debt Strategy Simulation Framework

  Staff Working Paper 2002-13 David Bolder

  An effective technique governments use to evaluate the desirability of different financing strategies involves stochastic simulation. This approach requires the postulation of the future dynamics of key macroeconomic variables and the use of those variables in the construction of a debt charge distribution for each individual financing strategy.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Debt management, Econometric and statistical methods, Interest rates JEL Code(s): C, C0, C5, G, G0

• Risk, Entropy, and the Transformation of Distributions

  Staff Working Paper 2002-11 Mark Reesor, Don McLeish

  The exponential family, relative entropy, and distortion are methods of transforming probability distributions. We establish a link between those methods, focusing on the relation between relative entropy and distortion.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Financial markets, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): C, C0, C1, D, D8, G, G0

• An Introduction to Wavelets for Economists

  Staff Working Paper 2002-3 Christoph Schleicher

  Wavelets are mathematical expansions that transform data from the time domain into different layers of frequency levels. Compared to standard Fourier analysis, they have the advantage of being localized both in time and in the frequency domain, and enable the researcher to observe and analyze data at different scales.

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