D - Microeconomics

• Inequality in Parental Transfers, Borrowing Constraints and Optimal Higher Education Subsidies

  Staff Working Paper 2019-7 Youngmin Park

  This paper studies optimal education subsidies when parental transfers are unequally distributed across students and cannot be publicly observed. After documenting substantial inequality in parental transfers among US college students with similar family resources, I examine its implications for how the education subsidy should vary with schooling level and family resources to minimize inefficiencies generated by borrowing constraints.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Fiscal Policy, Potential output, Productivity JEL Code(s): D, D1, D14, D6, D61, D64, D8, D82, I, I2, I22, J, J2, J24

• The Productivity Slowdown in Canada: An ICT Phenomenon?

  Staff Working Paper 2019-2 Jeffrey Mollins, Pierre St-Amant

  We ask whether a weaker contribution of information and communication technologies (ICT) to productivity growth could account for the productivity slowdown observed in Canada since the early 2000s. To answer this question, we consider several methods capturing channels through which ICT could affect aggregate productivity growth.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Productivity JEL Code(s): D, D2, D24, O, O4, O41, O47

• 2017 Methods-of-Payment Survey Report

  Staff Discussion Paper 2018-17 Christopher Henry, Kim Huynh, Angelika Welte

  As the sole issuer of bank notes, the Bank of Canada conducts Methods-of-Payment (MOP) surveys to obtain a detailed and representative snapshot of Canadian payment choices, with a focus on cash usage. The 2017 MOP Survey is the third iteration. This paper finds that the overall cash volume and value shares are 33 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital Currencies, Financial services JEL Code(s): D, D8, D83, E, E4, E41

• The Cost of the Government Bond Buyback and Switch Programs in Canada

  Staff Analytical Note 2018-41 Bo Young Chang, Jun Yang, Parker Liu

  This note examines the costs of the Government of Canada bond buyback and switch programs between 1998 and 2016. Our analysis indicates that the auction design of the buyback program was effective in retiring government debt with minimal costs resulting from bid shading in auctions and price impact.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Analytical Notes Topic(s): Debt Management JEL Code(s): D, D4, D44

• The Impact of Recent Policy Changes on the Canadian Mortgage Market

  Staff Analytical Note 2018-35 Olga Bilyk, Maria teNyenhuis

  Recent policy changes are having a clear impact on the mortgage market. The number of new, highly indebted borrowers has fallen, and overall mortgage activity has slowed significantly.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Analytical Notes Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Financial Institutions, Interest rates, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): D, D1, E, E4, G, G2, G21, G28

• The Framework for Risk Identification and Assessment

  Technical Report No. 113 Cameron MacDonald, Virginie Traclet

  Risk assessment models are an important component of the Bank’s analytical tool kit for assessing the resilience of the financial system. We describe the Framework for Risk Identification and Assessment (FRIDA), a suite of models developed at the Bank of Canada to quantify the impact of financial stability risks to the broader economy and a range of financial system participants (households, businesses and banks).

  Content Type(s): Technical Reports Topic(s): Economic models, Financial Institutions, Financial stability, Housing JEL Code(s): C, C3, C5, C6, C7, D, D1, E, E0, E00, E2, E27, E3, E37, E4, E47, G, G0, G2, G21

• How Long Does It Take You to Pay? A Duration Study of Canadian Retail Transaction Payment Times

  Staff Working Paper 2018-46 Geneviève Vallée

  Using an exclusive data set of payment times for retail transactions made in Canada, I show that cash is the most time-efficient method of payment (MOP) when compared with payments by debit and credit cards. I model payment efficiency using Cox proportional hazard models, accounting for consumer choice of MOP.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Econometric and statistical methods, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C2, C25, C3, C36, C4, C41, D, D2, D23, E, E4, E41, E42

• The Impact of Government Debt Supply on Bond Market Liquidity: An Empirical Analysis of the Canadian Market

  Staff Working Paper 2018-35 Jeffrey Gao, Jianjian Jin, Jacob Thompson

  This paper finds that Government of Canada benchmark bonds tend to be more illiquid over the subsequent month when there is a large increase in government debt supply. The result is both statistically and economically significant, stronger for the long-term than the short-term sector, and is robust when other macro factors are controlled for.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Asset Pricing, Debt Management, Financial markets JEL Code(s): D, D5, D53, G, G1, G12, G18, G2, G3, G32

• Does Outward Foreign Investment Matter for Canadian Productivity? Evidence from Greenfield Investments

  Staff Working Paper 2018-31 Naveen Rai, Lena Suchanek, Maria Bernier

  This paper seeks to understand how outward foreign direct investment (FDI) affects the productivity of Canadian firms. We estimate the impact of outward greenfield investment on measures of firm-level productivity using FDI data from roughly 2,000 Canadian firms and more than 4,000 outward FDI projects over the 2003–14 period.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Firm dynamics, Productivity JEL Code(s): D, D2, D24, F, F2, F21, F23

• A Look Inside the Box: Combining Aggregate and Marginal Distributions to Identify Joint Distributions

  Staff Working Paper 2018-29 Marie-Hélène Felt

  This paper proposes a method for estimating the joint distribution of two or more variables when only their marginal distributions and the distribution of their aggregates are observed. Nonparametric identification is achieved by modelling dependence using a latent common-factor structure.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital Currencies, Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C1, C14, D, D1, D14, E, E4, E41