Find Bank of Canada research by keyword, author, content type, JEL code, topic or date of publication.
Receive notification by email whenever new research is added to the website.
278
result(s)
December 14, 1998
Downward wage rigidity
There has recently been considerable discussion about the ability of inflation to facilitate the adjustment of prices and wages and thus enhance economic performance. The discussion centres on whether wages are downwardly rigid. Wages are said to be downwardly rigid if it is difficult for the wages of some workers to fall despite underlying supply and demand pressures for decreases. Some authors have suggested that if downward nominal wage rigidity is prevalent it would be desirable to select a positive rate of inflation as the target for monetary policy. In this article, the authors evaluate the wage-rigidity hypothesis. They first examine the empirical evidence to assess whether the degree of downward rigidity is significant in Canada. They then analyze some key assumptions of the wage-rigidity hypothesis and its implications for employment. They also look at the empirical evidence on whether the combination of downward wage rigidity and low inflation has reduced employment.
Content Type(s):
Publications,
Bank of Canada Review articles
Topic(s):
Inflation: costs and benefits
November 14, 1998
Lower inflation: Benefits and costs
The federal government and the Bank of Canada have been committed for some time to achieving and maintaining price stability as a way to foster a rising standard of living for all Canadians. To support this objective, the inflation-control target range of 1 to 3 per cent was recently extended through to the end of 2001. By then, the government and the Bank plan to announce a long-run target for monetary policy. In this article, the authors provide an overview of the most recent empirical evidence on the benefits of lower inflation. They draw on an extensive earlier survey and on work presented at two recent conferences on price stability hosted by the Bank of Canada. They find that, when inflation and tax interactions are taken into account, there are large benefits to lowering inflation. When these benefits are compared with the transitional costs associated with lowering inflation, significant positive benefits remain. However, the authors note that the extension of the inflation-control targets to the end of 2001 allows further research to ensure an operational definition of price stability that will help Canadians achieve a high standard of living.
Content Type(s):
Publications,
Bank of Canada Review articles
Topic(s):
Inflation: costs and benefits
On the Believable Benefits of Low Inflation
Staff Working Paper 1998-15
Christopher Ragan
This paper reviews the existing theoretical and empirical literature addressing the benefits of low inflation. The ultimate goal is to arrive at a set of benefits in which a monetary authority can have genuine confidence. I argue that the current state of economic research—both empirical and theoretical—provides little basis for believing in significant observable benefits […]
Content Type(s):
Staff research,
Staff working papers
Topic(s):
Inflation: costs and benefits
JEL Code(s):
E,
E3,
E31
Non-Linearities in the Output-Inflation Relationship: Some Empirical Results for Canada
Staff Working Paper 1998-14
Chantal Dupasquier,
Nicholas Ricketts
This paper analyzes the short-run dynamic process of inflation in Canada and examines whether a systematic variation in the relationship between inflation and output can be detected over time. In the theoretical literature, different models of price-setting behaviour predict that the slope of the Phillips curve will be a function of macroeconomic conditions, implying a […]
Content Type(s):
Staff research,
Staff working papers
Topic(s):
Inflation: costs and benefits,
Productivity
Un examen de la crédibilité de la politique monétaire au Canada
Staff Working Paper 1998-12
Patrick Perrier
In this study, the author uses survey data on inflationary expectations to obtain information about the credibility of Canada's monetary policy. By comparing the differences between the forecasts made by survey participants with the targets set by the Bank of Canada for the 1992-1996 period (the period covered by the study), it was possible to […]
Content Type(s):
Staff research,
Staff working papers
Topic(s):
Inflation targets
JEL Code(s):
E,
E5,
E52
May 12, 1998
Measurement biases in the Canadian CPI: An update
The consumer price index (CPI) is used to measure changes in the price level of consumer goods and services. As an indicator of changes in the cost of living, it is susceptible to various types of measurement biases. This article provides estimates of the size of these biases in the Canadian CPI. It concludes that the rate of increase in the CPI probably overstates the rate of increase in the cost of living by about 0.5 percentage points per year.
Content Type(s):
Publications,
Bank of Canada Review articles
Topic(s):
Inflation and prices
Forecasting Inflation with the M1-VECM: Part Two
Staff Working Paper 1998-6
Walter Engert,
Scott Hendry
A central bank's main concern is the general direction of future inflation, and not transitory fluctuations of the inflation rate. As a result, this paper is concerned with forecasting a simple measure of the trend of inflation, the eight-quarter CPI-inflation rate. The primary objective is to improve the M1-based vector-error-correction model (VECM) developed by Hendry […]
Content Type(s):
Staff research,
Staff working papers
Topic(s):
Economic models,
Inflation and prices,
Monetary aggregates
JEL Code(s):
C,
C3,
C5,
E,
E3,
E4,
E5
The Benefits of Low Inflation: Taking Stock
Technical Report No. 83
Brian O'Reilly
This paper surveys the empirical literature on the benefits of low inflation, emphasizing contributions since 1990. It follows the framework of a section in the Bank's 1990 Annual Report, "The benefits of price stability."
Content Type(s):
Staff research,
Technical reports
Topic(s):
Inflation: costs and benefits
JEL Code(s):
E,
E3
November 13, 1997
Statistical measures of the trend rate of inflation
As a guide for the conduct of monetary policy, most central banks make use of a trend inflation index similar to that employed by the Bank of Canada: the CPI excluding food, energy, and the effect of indirect taxes. In addition to their basic reference index, some central banks regularly publish statistical measures of the trend rate of inflation. The method used for producing these measures is, for the most part, based on the hypothesis that extreme price fluctuations generally reflect temporary shocks to the inflation rate, rather than its underlying trend. In this paper, the author offers a broad survey of studies on the measurement of trend inflation that have been published by the Bank of Canada and presents the results of the most recent work on the subject. Particular attention is paid to two statistical measures that the Bank follows more closely than other measures; namely, the CPIX, a price index that excludes eight of the most volatile CPI components, and CPIW, a measure that retains all the components of the overall index but gives a lower weighting to the most volatile.
Content Type(s):
Publications,
Bank of Canada Review articles
Topic(s):
Inflation and prices