G - Financial Economics

• The Canadian Banking System

  Technical Report No. 81 Charles Freedman

  This paper examines the major changes in the Canadian banking system since the Second World War, with special attention paid to the differences between Canadian and U.S. developments over this period.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Research Topic(s): Financial institutions JEL Code(s): G, G2

• Fads or Bubbles?

  Staff Working Paper 1997-2 Huntley Schaller, Simon van Norden

  This paper tests between fads and bubbles using a new empirical strategy (based on switching-regression econometrics) for distinguishing between competing asset-pricing models. By extending the Blanchard and Watson (1982) model, we show how stochastic bubbles can lead to regime-switching in stock market returns.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Financial markets JEL Code(s): C, C4, C40, G, G1, G12

• Speculative Behaviour, Regime-Switching and Stock Market Crashes

  Staff Working Paper 1996-13 Simon van Norden, Huntley Schaller

  This paper uses regime-switching econometrics to study stock market crashes and to explore the ability of two very different economic explanations to account for historical crashes. The first explanation is based on historical accounts of "manias and panics."

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Financial markets JEL Code(s): C, C4, C40, E, E4, E44, G, G1, G12

• Switching Between Chartists and Fundamentalists: A Markov Regime-Switching Approach

  Staff Working Paper 1996-1 Robert Vigfusson

  Since the early 1980s, models based on economic fundamentals have been poor at explaining the movements in the exchange rate (Messe 1990). In response to this problem, Frankel and Froot (1988) developed a model that uses two approaches to forecast the exchange rate: the fundamentalist approach, which bases the forecast on economic fundamentals, and the chartist approach, which bases the forecast on the past behaviour of the exchange rate.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Financial markets JEL Code(s): C, C4, C40, G, G1, G12

• The Electronic Purse: An Overview of Recent Developments and Policy Issues

  Technical Report No. 74 Gerald Stuber

  Futurists have been speculating about the prospects for a cashless society for many years, and such predictions became more frequent following the introduction of "smart" cards - cards containing a computer chip - in the mid-1970s.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Research Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Financial institutions, Payment clearing and settlement systems, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, G, G2, G20

• The Microstructure of Financial Derivatives Markets: Exchange-Traded versus Over-the-Counter

  Technical Report No. 68 Brenda González-Hermosillo

  In this report the author focusses on the microstructure of derivatives markets. While the primary objective is to examine derivatives markets in Canada, the author also discusses certain developments in global derivatives markets that are bound to influence the functioning and development of financial markets in a small, open economy such as Canada's. It is […]

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Research Topic(s): Financial markets JEL Code(s): G, G1, G10

• Optimum Currency Areas and Shock Asymmetry: A Comparison of Europe and the United States

  Staff Working Paper 1994-1 Nick Chamie, Alain DeSerres, René Lalonde

  Since the early 1980s, models based on economic fundamentals have been poor at explaining the movements in the exchange rate (Messe 1990). In response to this problem, Frankel and Froot (1988) developed a model that uses two approaches to forecast the exchange rate: the fundamentalist approach, which bases the forecast on economic fundamentals, and the chartist approach, which bases the forecast on the past behaviour of the exchange rate.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Exchange rates, Financial markets JEL Code(s): C, C4, C40, G, G1, G12

• Tests of Market Efficiency in the One-Week When-Issued Market for Government of Canada Treasury Bills

  Technical Report No. 65 D. Graham Pugh

  This report presents different tests of market efficiency in the when- issued market for Government of Canada treasury bills and examines the effectiveness, in this market, of Bank operations over the 1986 to mid- 1992 period. The when-issued market, which is a combination of a forward and futures market, enables market participants to buy or […]

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Research Topic(s): Financial markets JEL Code(s): G, G1, G14

• The Development of Financial Derivatives Markets: The Canadian Experience

  Technical Report No. 62 Sean O'Connor

  In response to an intense demand for risk management services since the early 1980s, the over-the-counter (OTC) markets for financial derivatives in Canada have developed more vigorously than those for exchange-traded (EXT) derivative securities. This is particularly evident for interest rate derivatives. The objectives of this paper are to examine why Canadian interest rate derivatives […]

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Research Topic(s): Financial markets JEL Code(s): G, G1, G10

• Measuring the Profitability and Effectiveness of Foreign Exchange Market Intervention: Some Canadian Evidence

  Technical Report No. 53 John Murray, Mark Zelmer, Shane Williamson

  When the major industrial countries decided to move to a system of managed flexible exchange rates following the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, many observers thought that this would reduce, if not eliminate, the need for official foreign exchange market intervention. During the past fifteen years, however, intervention in most countries, including Canada, has […]

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Research Topic(s): Exchange rates JEL Code(s): F, F3, F31, G, G1, G14