E5 - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit

• Is a Cashless Society Problematic?

  Staff Discussion Paper 2018-12 Walter Engert, Ben Fung, Scott Hendry

  The use of bank notes in Canada for payments has declined consistently for some time, and similar trends are evident in other countries. This has led some observers to predict a cashless society in the future.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital Currencies, Financial services, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5

• Disaggregating Household Sensitivity to Monetary Policy by Expenditure Category

  Staff Analytical Note 2018-32 Tony Chernis, Corinne Luu

  Because the Bank of Canada has started withdrawing monetary stimulus, monitoring the transmission of these changes to monetary policy will be important. Subcomponents of consumption and housing will likely respond differently to a monetary policy tightening, both in terms of the aggregate effect and timing.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Analytical Notes Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Domestic demand and components, Econometric and statistical methods, Housing, Interest rates, Recent economic and financial developments, Transmission of monetary policy JEL Code(s): C, C3, C32, E, E2, E21, E22, E4, E43, E47, E5, E52

• Monetary Policy Uncertainty: A Tale of Two Tails

  Staff Working Paper 2018-50 Tatjana Dahlhaus, Tatevik Sekhposyan

  We document a strong asymmetry in the evolution of federal funds rate expectations and map this observed asymmetry into measures of monetary policy uncertainty. We show that periods of monetary policy tightening and easing are distinctly related to downside (policy rate is higher than expected) and upside (policy rate is lower than expected) uncertainty.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Econometric and statistical methods, Monetary policy communications, Transmission of monetary policy, Uncertainty and monetary policy JEL Code(s): C, C1, C18, C3, C32, E, E0, E02, E4, E43, E5, E52

• Price Selection

  Staff Working Paper 2018-44 Carlos Carvalho, Oleksiy Kryvtsov

  We propose a simple, model-free way to measure price selection and its impact on inflation. Price selection exists when prices that change in response to aggregate shocks are not representative of the overall population of prices. Due to selection, increases (decreases) in inflation can be amplified because adjusting prices tend to originate from levels far below (above) the average.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Inflation and prices, Transmission of monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E5, E51

• Weakness in Non-Commodity Exports: Demand versus Supply Factors

  Staff Analytical Note 2018-28 José Dorich, Vadym Lepetyuk, Jonathan Swarbrick

  We use the Terms-of-Trade Economic Model (ToTEM) to conduct demand- and supply-driven simulations, both of which deliver weakness in Canadian non-commodity exports relative to foreign activity in line with recent data.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Analytical Notes Topic(s): International topics, Monetary Policy, Recent economic and financial developments, Trade Integration JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, F, F1, F10, F14, F17

• What Is Restraining Non-Energy Export Growth?

  Staff Analytical Note 2018-25 Dany Brouillette, José Dorich, Chris D'Souza, Adrienne Gagnon, Claudia Godbout

  This note summarizes the key findings from Bank of Canada staff analytical work examining the reasons for the recent weakness in Canadian non-energy exports. Canada steadily lost market share in US non-energy imports between 2002 and 2017, mostly reflecting continued and broad-based competitiveness losses.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Analytical Notes Topic(s): International topics, Monetary Policy, Recent economic and financial developments, Trade Integration JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, F, F1, F10, F14, F17

• Nowcasting Canadian Economic Activity in an Uncertain Environment

  Staff Discussion Paper 2018-9 Tony Chernis, Rodrigo Sekkel

  This paper studies short-term forecasting of Canadian real GDP and its expenditure components using combinations of nowcasts from different models. Starting with a medium-sized data set, we use a suite of common nowcasting tools for quarterly real GDP and its expenditure components.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C5, C53, E, E3, E37, E5, E52

• Time-Consistent Management of a Liquidity Trap with Government Debt

  Staff Working Paper 2018-38 Dmitry Matveev

  This paper studies optimal discretionary monetary and fiscal policy when the lower bound on nominal interest rates is occasionally binding in a model with nominal rigidities and long-term government debt. At the lower bound it is optimal for the government to temporarily reduce debt.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E6, E62, E63

• The Extensive Margin of Trade and Monetary Policy

  Staff Working Paper 2018-37 Yuko Imura, Malik Shukayev

  This paper studies the effects of monetary policy shocks on firms’ participation in exporting. We develop a two-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model in which heterogeneous firms make forward-looking decisions on whether to participate in the export market and prices are staggered across firms and time.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, Firm dynamics, International topics, Monetary Policy JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, F, F1, F12, F4, F44

• Central Bank Digital Currency and Monetary Policy

  Staff Working Paper 2018-36 Mohammad Davoodalhosseini

  Many central banks are contemplating whether to issue central bank digital currency. This piece explores the implications as well as potential motivators of such a step.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Digital Currencies, Monetary Policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E50