The global economy has been unfolding largely as expected, and prospects for continued robust growth are quite favourable, especially over the near term.
The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 2 1/2 per cent. The operating band for the overnight rate is unchanged, and the Bank Rate remains at 2 3/4 per cent.
Businesses are more optimistic about the economic outlook than in the winter survey. The greater stability of the Canadian dollar in the three months since the previous survey has helped to ease concerns among exporters. Businesses continue to expect strong domestic sales.
Using industry-level data for Canadian manufacturing industries from 1981 to 1997, the authors find empirical evidence of a negative relationship between the capital-labour ratio and the user cost of capital relative to the price of labour.
The author develops a theoretical model of bank closure. The regulatory decision about bank failure consists of two parts: whether to close and how to close.
In a search model of production, where agents accumulate heterogeneous amounts of human capital, an individual worker's wage depends on average human capital in the searching population.
The authors examine the ability of economic models with regime shifts to rationalize and explain the risk-aversion and pricing-kernel puzzles put forward in Jackwerth (2000).
Productivity plays a critical role when it comes to our national standard of living. Productivity growth is the main element that contributes to continued improvements in real incomes and overall prosperity. Rising productivity lets businesses pay higher wages, while keeping costs down, employment high, and profits coming in. That's why economists like me spend a lot of time thinking about ways to improve the productivity of our economy.