E58 - Central Banks and Their Policies

• Credibility, Flexibility and Renewal: The Evolution of Inflation Targeting in Canada

  Staff Discussion Paper 2018-18 Thomas J. Carter, Rhys R. Mendes, Lawrence L. Schembri

  In 1991, Canada became the second country to adopt an inflation target as a central pillar of its monetary policy framework. The regime has proven much more successful than initially expected, both in achieving price stability and in stabilizing the real economy against a wide range of shocks.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Credibility, Inflation targets, Monetary Policy, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E58, E6, E61

• Should the Central Bank Issue E-money?

  Staff Working Paper 2018-58 Charles M. Kahn, Francisco Rivadeneyra, Tsz-Nga Wong

  Should a central bank take over the provision of e-money, a circulable electronic liability? We discuss how e-money technology changes the tradeoff between public and private provision, and the tradeoff between e-money and a central bank's existing liabilities like bank notes and reserves.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital Currencies, Financial services, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E51, E58

• Following the Money: Evidence for the Portfolio Balance Channel of Quantitative Easing

  Staff Working Paper 2018-33 Itay Goldstein, Jonathan Witmer, Jing Yang

  Recent research suggests that quantitative easing (QE) may affect a broad range of asset prices through a portfolio balance channel. Using novel security-level holding data of individual US mutual funds, we establish evidence that portfolio rebalancing occurred both within and across funds.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Monetary Policy, Monetary policy implementation, Transmission of monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E5, E58, G, G2, G23

• Assessing the Impact of Demand Shocks on the US Term Premium

  Staff Discussion Paper 2018-7 Russell Barnett, Konrad Zmitrowicz

  During and after the Great Recession of 2008–09, conventional monetary policy in the United States and many other advanced economies was constrained by the effective lower bound (ELB) on nominal interest rates. Several central banks implemented large-scale asset purchase (LSAP) programs, more commonly known as quantitative easing or QE, to provide additional monetary stimulus.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Interest rates, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation, Transmission of monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E5, E52, E58, E6, E61, E65, G, G1, G12

• 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

• Swedish Riksbank Notes and Enskilda Bank Notes: Lessons for Digital Currencies

  Staff Working Paper 2018-27 Ben Fung, Scott Hendry, Warren E. Weber

  This paper examines the experience of Sweden with government notes and private bank notes to determine how well the Swedish experience corresponds to that of Canada and the United States. Sweden is important to study because it has had government notes in circulation for more than 350 years, and it had government notes before private bank notes.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital Currencies, Financial services JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E58

• How to Manage Macroeconomic and Financial Stability Risks: A New Framework

  Staff Analytical Note 2018-11 Alexander Ueberfeldt, Thibaut Duprey

  Financial system vulnerabilities increase the downside risk to future GDP growth. Macroprudential tightening significantly reduces financial stability risks associated with vulnerabilities. Monetary policy faces a trade-off between financial stability and macroeconomic risks.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Analytical Notes Topic(s): Central bank research, Economic models, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, Interest rates, Monetary Policy, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E5, E52, E58, G, G0, G01

• A Policy Framework for E-Money: A Report on Bank of Canada Research

  Staff Discussion Paper 2018-5 Mohammad Davoodalhosseini, Francisco Rivadeneyra

  We present a policy framework for electronic money and payments. The framework poses a set of positive questions related to the areas of responsibility of central banks: payments systems, monetary policy and financial stability. The questions are posed to four broad forms of e-money: privately or publicly issued, and with centralized or decentralized verification of transactions. This framework is intended to help evaluate the trade-offs that central banks face in the decision to issue new forms of e-money.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Discussion Papers Topic(s): Digital Currencies, Monetary Policy, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E5, E51, E52, E58

• Asymmetric Risks to the Economic Outlook Arising from Financial System Vulnerabilities

  Staff Analytical Note 2018-6 Thibaut Duprey

  When financial system vulnerabilities are elevated, they can give rise to asymmetric risks to the economic outlook. To illustrate this, I consider the economic outlook presented in the Bank of Canada’s October 2017 Monetary Policy Report in the context of two key financial system vulnerabilities: high levels of household indebtedness and housing market imbalances.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Analytical Notes Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Econometric and statistical methods, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies, Monetary and financial indicators, Recent economic and financial developments, Uncertainty and monetary policy JEL Code(s): C, C0, C01, C1, C11, C15, E, E1, E17, E3, E32, E37, E4, E44, E47, E5, E58, E6, E66, G, G0, G01, G1, G18

• How Do Central Bank Projections and Forward Guidance Influence Private-Sector Forecasts?

  Staff Working Paper 2018-2 Monica Jain, Christopher S. Sutherland

  We construct a 23-country panel data set to consider the effect of central bank projections and forward guidance on private-sector forecast disagreement. We find that central bank projections and forward guidance matter mainly for private-sector forecast disagreement surrounding upcoming policy rate decisions and matter less for private-sector macroeconomic forecasts.

  Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Central bank research, Inflation targets, Monetary Policy, Monetary policy communications, Transmission of monetary policy JEL Code(s): D, D8, D83, E, E3, E37, E5, E52, E58