Monetary policy

• Is Money Essential? An Experimental Approach

  Staff working paper 2023-39 Janet Hua Jiang, Peter Norman, Daniela Puzzello, Bruno Sultanum, Randall Wright

  Monetary theory says that money is essential if it helps to achieve better incentive-feasible outcomes. We test this in the laboratory.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C9, C92, E, E4, E5 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission

• It takes a panel to predict the future: What the stock market says about future economic growth in Canada

  Staff analytical note 2023-9 Greg Adams, Jean-Sébastien Fontaine

  Valuation ratios in the Canadian stock market can help reveal investors’ expectations about future economic growth because the impact of economic growth on valuation ratios can vary across industries. We find that this variation helps produce accurate forecasts of future growth of real gross domestic product in Canada. The forecasts from our model declined by just over 3 percentage points between January 2022 and February 2023—a period when the Bank of Canada rapidly increased the overnight rate. As well, we find that interest-rate-sensitive industries had an outsized contribution to this expected slowdown in growth. 

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E47, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Real economy and forecasting

• Global Demand and Supply Sentiment: Evidence from Earnings Calls

  Staff working paper 2023-37 Temel Taskin, Franz Ulrich Ruch

  This paper quantifies global demand, supply and uncertainty shocks and compares two major global recessions: the 2008–09 Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. We use two alternate approaches to decompose economic shocks: text mining techniques on earnings calls transcripts and a structural Bayesian vector autoregression model.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C11, C3, C32, E, E3, E32, G, G1, G10 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting

• What Can Earnings Calls Tell Us About the Output Gap and Inflation in Canada?

  Staff discussion paper 2023-13 Marc-André Gosselin, Temel Taskin

  We construct new indicators of demand and supply for the Canadian economy by using natural language processing techniques to analyze earnings calls of publicly listed firms. Our results indicate that the new indicators could help central banks identify inflationary pressures in real time.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C3, E, E3, E5 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting

• Why Consumers Disagree About Future Inflation

  Staff discussion paper 2023-11 Naveen Rai, Patrick Sabourin

  Since 2022, consumer inflation expectations have shifted, with a significant increase in those expecting high inflation in the coming year and a surge in those expecting deflation further in the future. Using data from the Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations, this paper seeks to assess the factors that influence people to expect high inflation, moderate inflation or deflation.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): C, C8, C83, D, D8, D84, E, E3, E31 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting

• Markups and inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic

  Staff analytical note 2023-8 Olga Bilyk, Timothy Grieder, Mikael Khan

  We find that prices and costs for consumer-oriented firms moved roughly one-for-one during the COVID-19 pandemic. This means firms fully passed rising costs through to the prices they charged. However, our results are suggestive, given data limitations and the uncertainty associated with estimating markups.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): D, D2, D4, E, E2, E3, L, L1 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting

• What People Believe About Monetary Finance and What We Can(’t) Do About It: Evidence from a Large-Scale, Multi-Country Survey Experiment

  Staff working paper 2023-36 Cars Hommes, Julien Pinter, Isabelle Salle

  We conduct a large-scale survey to shed light on what people believe about public finance. An experiment demonstrates that central bank communication can persistently shift views on monetary financing. It further suggests that views on monetary financing impact support for fiscal discipline.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C8, C83, E, E5, E58, E6, E60, E62, E7, E70, G, G5, G53, H, H3, H31 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Real economy and forecasting

• Monetary Policy Transmission, Bank Market Power, and Wholesale Funding Reliance

  Staff working paper 2023-35 Amina Enkhbold

  I study how banking market concentration and reliance on wholesale funding affect monetary policy transmission to mortgage rates. I find that this transmission is imperfect and dampens the response of consumption, output, and housing prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E5, E52, G, G2, G21 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Household and business credit, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission

• Unpacking Moving: A Quantitative Spatial Equilibrium Model with Wealth

  Staff working paper 2023-34 Elisa Giannone, Qi Li, Nuno Paixão, Xinle Pang

  We propose a model to understand low observed migration rates by considering the interaction between location and wealth decisions. We look at different policies and find that temporary moving vouchers only slightly increase welfare, while lower housing regulations can decrease the welfare gap by lowering house prices nationwide.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G5, G51, R, R1, R12, R13, R2, R3, R31, R5, R52 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply

• SME Failures Under Large Liquidity Shocks: An Application to the COVID-19 Crisis

  Staff working paper 2023-32 Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan, Veronika Penciakova, Nicholas Sander

  We study the effects of financial frictions on firm exit when firms face large liquidity shocks. We develop a simple model of firm cost-minimization that introduces a financial friction that limits firms’ borrowing capacity to smooth temporary shocks to liquidity.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D2, D21, D22, E, E6, E65, H, H8, H81 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Household and business credit, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting