E2 - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment

• Digitalization: Productivity

  Staff Discussion Paper 2023-17 Jeffrey Mollins, Temel Taskin

  We examine the relationship between digitalization and productivity, the factors that influence this relationship, and how digitalization’s effect on productivity could change firm behaviour.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Research Topic(s): Digitalization, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E2, L, L1, L11, O, O4, O47, O5, O51

• Markups and inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-8 Olga Bilyk, Timothy Grieder, Mikael Khan

  We find that prices and costs for consumer-oriented firms moved roughly one-for-one during the COVID-19 pandemic. This means firms fully passed rising costs through to the prices they charged. However, our results are suggestive, given data limitations and the uncertainty associated with estimating markups.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Firm dynamics, Inflation and prices JEL Code(s): D, D2, D4, E, E2, E3, L, L1

• Time Use and Macroeconomic Uncertainty

  Staff Working Paper 2023-29 Matteo Cacciatore, Stefano Gnocchi, Daniela Hauser

  We estimate the effects of economic uncertainty on time use and discuss its macroeconomic implications. We develop a model to demonstrate that substitution between market and non-market work provides an additional insurance margin to households, weakening precautionary savings and labour supply and lowering aggregate demand, ultimately amplifying the contractionary effects of uncertainty.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Domestic demand and components, Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, E3, E32, E5, E52, J, J2, J22

• Benchmarks for assessing labour market health: 2023 update

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-7 Erik Ens, Kurt See, Corinne Luu

  We enhance benchmarks for assessing strength in the Canadian labour market. We find the labour market remains tight despite recent strong increases in labour supply, including among prime-working-age women. We also assess the anticipated easing in labour conditions in a context of high population growth.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Econometric and statistical methods, Labour markets, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, J, J2, J21, J6

• Potential output and the neutral rate in Canada: 2023 assessment

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-6 Julien Champagne, Christopher Hajzler, Dmitry Matveev, Harlee Melinchuk, Antoine Poulin-Moore, Galip Kemal Ozhan, Youngmin Park, Temel Taskin

  We expect that potential output growth will rebound from 1.4% in 2022 to 2.2% on average between 2023 and 2026. We revised down our estimates of growth over 2022–25 relative to the April 2022 assessment. The Canadian nominal neutral rate remains unchanged—in the range of 2% to 3%.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Economic models, Interest rates, Labour markets, Monetary policy, Potential output, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E2, E3, E4, E5

• Assessing global potential output growth and the US neutral rate: April 2023

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-5 Salma Ahmed, Aviel Avshalumov, Tania Chaar, Eshini Ekanayake, Helen Lao, Louis Poirier, Jenna Rolland-Mills, Argyn Toktamyssov, Lin Xiang

  We expect global potential output growth to increase from 2.5% in 2022 to 2.8% by 2026. Compared with the April 2022 staff assessment, global potential output growth is marginally slower. The current range for the US neutral rate is 2% to 3%, unchanged from the last annual assessment.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Interest rates, Monetary policy, Potential output, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E1, E2, E4, E5, F, F0, O, O4

• The Impact of Unemployment Insurance and Unsecured Credit on Business Cycles

  Staff Working Paper 2023-22 Michael Irwin

  This paper studies how unsecured consumer credit impacts the extent to which unemployment insurance (UI) policies smooth aggregate consumption fluctuations over the business cycle. Using a general equilibrium real business cycle model, I find that unsecured credit amplifies the extent to which UI smooths cyclical consumption fluctuations.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Credit and credit aggregates, Economic models, Fiscal policy, Labour markets JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, E24, E3, E32, E4, E44, E6, E62

• Demographic Origins of the Decline in Labor’s Share

  Staff Working Paper 2023-20 Andrew Glover, Jacob Short

  Declining labour market dynamism of workers results in an increasing wedge between their earnings and their marginal product as they age. This wedge and the demographic shift in the earnings shares of older workers can account for 59% of the decline in labor’s share of earnings in the United States.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Labour markets, Productivity JEL Code(s): D, D3, D33, E, E2, E25, J, J1, J3, J6, J62

• Persistent Debt and Business Cycles in an Economy with Production Heterogeneity

  Staff Working Paper 2023-17 Aubhik Khan, Soyoung Lee

  We examine the role of debt in amplifying and propagating recessions. Firms’ debt adjustment makes recessions deeper but makes expansions gradual. In particular, when the aggregate business leverage is ten percentage points above average, the half-life of the recovery doubles.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Firm dynamics, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E2, E23, E3, E30, E32

• The Canadian Neutral Rate of Interest through the Lens of an Overlapping-Generations Model

  Staff Discussion Paper 2023-5 Martin Kuncl, Dmitry Matveev

  We use a small open economy model with overlapping generations to evaluate secular dynamics of the neutral rate in Canada from 1980 to 2018. We find that changes in both foreign and domestic factors resulted in a protracted decline in the neutral rate.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Research Topic(s): Economic models, Interest rates, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, E22, E4, E43, E5, E50, E52, E58, F, F4, F41