E40 - General

• The Neutral Rate in Canada: 2019 Update

  Staff Analytical Note 2019-11 Thomas J. Carter, Xin Scott Chen, José Dorich

  This note provides an update on Bank of Canada staff’s assessment of the Canadian neutral rate. The neutral rate is the policy rate needed to keep output at its potential level and inflation at target once the effects of any cyclical shocks have dissipated. This medium- to long-run concept serves as a benchmark for gauging the degree of monetary stimulus provided by a given policy setting.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Analytical Notes Topic(s): Economic models, Interest rates, Monetary Policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E43, E5, E50, E52, E58, F, F4, F41

• The Neutral Rate in Canada: 2018 Estimates

  Staff Analytical Note 2018-22 Xin Scott Chen, José Dorich

  The neutral nominal policy rate serves as a benchmark for assessing the degree of monetary stimulus and provides a medium- to long-run anchor for the policy rate. Since quantitative measures of the neutral rate are subject to considerable uncertainty, Bank staff rely on four different approaches to estimate the Canadian neutral rate.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Analytical Notes Topic(s): Economic models, Interest rates, Monetary Policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E43, E5, E50, E52, E58, F, F4, F41

• Competing Currencies in the Laboratory

  Staff Working Paper 2017-53 Janet Hua Jiang, Cathy Zhang

  We investigate competition between two intrinsically worthless currencies as a result of decentralized interactions between human subjects. We design a laboratory experiment based on a simple two-country, two-currency search model to study factors that affect circulation patterns and equilibrium selection.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Digital Currencies and Fintech JEL Code(s): C, C9, C92, D, D8, D83, E, E4, E40

• Monetary Policy Implementation in a Negative Rate Environment

  Staff Working Paper 2017-25 Michael Boutros, Jonathan Witmer

  Monetary policy implementation could, in theory, be constrained by deeply negative rates since overnight market participants may have an incentive to invest in cash rather than lend to other participants.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Interest rates, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E42, E43, G, G0

• The Neutral Rate of Interest in Canada

  Staff Discussion Paper 2014-5 Rhys R. Mendes

  A measure of the neutral policy interest rate can be used to gauge the stance of monetary policy. We define the neutral rate as the real policy rate consistent with output at its potential level and inflation equal to target after the effects of all cyclical shocks have dissipated.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Interest rates, Transmission of monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E42, E43, E5, E50, E52, E58

• ToTEM II: An Updated Version of the Bank of Canada’s Quarterly Projection Model

  Technical Report No. 100 José Dorich, Michael K. Johnston, Rhys R. Mendes, Stephen Murchison, Yang Zhang

  This report provides a detailed technical description of an updated version of the Terms-of-Trade Economic Model (ToTEM II), which replaced ToTEM (Murchison and Rennison 2006) in June 2011 as the Bank of Canada’s quarterly projection model for Canada.

  Content Type(s): Technical Reports Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models JEL Code(s): E, E1, E17, E2, E20, E3, E30, E4, E40, E5, E50, F, F4, F41

• A Tractable Monetary Model Under General Preferences

  Staff Working Paper 2013-7 Tsz-Nga Wong

  Consider the monetary model of Lagos and Wright (JPE 2005) but with general preferences and general production. I show that preferences satisfying UXXUHH – (UXH)2 = 0 is a sufficient condition for the existence and uniqueness of monetary equilibrium with degenerate money distribution.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Economic models JEL Code(s): D, D8, D83, E, E4, E40

• On the Welfare Effects of Credit Arrangements

  Staff Working Paper 2012-43 Jonathan Chiu, Mei Dong, Enchuan Shao

  This paper studies the welfare effects of different credit arrangements and how these effects depend on the trading mechanism and inflation. In a competitive market, a deviation from the Friedman rule is always sub-optimal. Moreover, credit arrangements can be welfare-reducing, because increased consumption by credit users will drive up the price level so that money users have to reduce consumption when facing a binding liquidity restraint.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E5, E50

• Estimating the Demand for Settlement Balances in the Canadian Large Value Transfer System

  Staff Working Paper 2012-15 Nellie Zhang

  This paper applies a static model of an interest rate corridor to the Canadian data, and estimates the aggregate demand for central-bank settlement balances in the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS).

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Interest rates, Monetary policy implementation, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C3, C36, E, E4, E40, E5, E50, G, G0, G01

• Central Bank Haircut Policy

  Staff Working Paper 2010-23 James Chapman, Jonathan Chiu, Miguel Molico

  We present a model of central bank collateralized lending to study the optimal choice of the haircut policy. We show that a lending facility provides a bundle of two types of insurance: insurance against liquidity risk as well as insurance against downside risk of the collateral.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Financial services, Financial system regulation and policies, Monetary policy implementation, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E40, E5, E50