D - Microeconomics

• Pocket Banks and Out-of-Pocket Losses: Links between Corruption and Contagion

  Staff Working Paper 2005-23 Raphael Solomon

  The author describes a model with a corrupt banking system, in which bankers knowingly lend at market interest rates to back projects riskier than the market rate indicates.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial stability JEL Code(s): D, D8, D82, G, G1, G19, G2, G21

• The Effects of the Exchange Rate on Investment: Evidence from Canadian Manufacturing Industries

  Staff Working Paper 2005-22 Tarek Harchaoui, Faouzi Tarkhani, Terence Yuen

  Using industry-level data for 22 Canadian manufacturing industries, the authors examine the relationship between exchange rates and investment during the period 1981–97.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Domestic demand and components, Exchange rates JEL Code(s): D, D2, D24, F, F4

• La fonction de production et les données canadiennes

  Staff Working Paper 2005-20 Patrick Perrier

  This study has two aspects. First, the author examines the theoretical properties of the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function and the implications of this formulation for the properties of a structural macroeconomic model.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): D, D2, D24, E, E2, E23, O, O4, O40

• Lines of Credit and Consumption Smoothing: The Choice between Credit Cards and Home Equity Lines of Credit

  Staff Working Paper 2005-18 Shubhasis Dey

  The author models the choice between credit cards and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) within a framework where consumers hold lines of credit as instruments of consumption smoothing across state and time.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates JEL Code(s): D, D1, D8, D81

• Risk Perceptions and Attitudes

  Staff Working Paper 2005-17 Miroslav Misina

  Changes in risk perception have been used in various contexts to explain shorter-term developments in financial markets, as part of a mechanism that amplifies fluctuations in financial markets, as well as in accounts of "irrational exuberance."

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Financial markets JEL Code(s): D, D8, D81, D84, G, G1, G12

• Efficiency and Economies of Scale of Large Canadian Banks

  Staff Working Paper 2005-13 Jason Allen, Ying Liu

  The authors measure the economies of scale of Canada's six largest banks and their costefficiency over time. Using a unique panel data set from 1983 to 2003, they estimate pooled translog cost functions and derive measures of relative efficiency and economies of scale.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial institutions JEL Code(s): C, C3, C33, D, D2, D24, G, G2, G21

• Determinants of Borrowing Limits on Credit Cards

  Staff Working Paper 2005-7 Shubhasis Dey, Gene Mumy

  The difference between actual borrowings and borrowing limits alone generates information asymmetry in the credit card market.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): C, C3, D, D4, D8, D82

• Monetary Policy under Model and Data-Parameter Uncertainty

  Staff Working Paper 2005-6 Gino Cateau

  Policy-makers in the United States over the past 15 to 20 years seem to have been cautious in setting policy: empirical estimates of monetary policy rules such as Taylor's (1993) rule are much less aggressive than those derived from optimizing models.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): D, D8, D81, E, E5, E58

• Uninsurable Investment Risks

  Staff Working Paper 2004-29 Césaire Meh, Vincenzo Quadrini

  The authors study a general-equilibrium economy in which agents have the ability to invest in a risky technology.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial markets JEL Code(s): D, D3, D31, E, E2, E21, G, G0

• Financial Market Imperfection, Overinvestment, and Speculative Precaution

  Staff Working Paper 2004-27 Christian Calmès

  The author uses panel data to assess the sensitivity of investment to cash flow in non-financial firms, taking into account the role their financial health plays in investment decisions.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles JEL Code(s): D, D9, D92, E, E2, E22, E4, E44, G, G3, G33