Real economy and forecasting

• Can the Business Outlook Survey Help Improve Estimates of the Canadian Output Gap?

  Staff discussion paper 2020-14 Calista Cheung, Luke Frymire, Lise Pichette

  We investigate whether questions in the Bank of Canada’s Business Outlook Survey can provide useful signals for the output gap.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): E, E3 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting

• Towards a HANK Model for Canada: Estimating a Canadian Income Process

  Staff discussion paper 2020-13 Iskander Karibzhanov

  How might one simulate a million realistic income paths and compute their statistical moments in under a second? Using CUDA-based methods to estimate the Canadian earnings process, I find that the distribution of labour income growth is sharply peaked with heavy tails—similar to that in the United States.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): D, D3, D31, E, E2, E24, J, J3, J31 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting

• The Heterogeneous Effects of COVID-19 on Canadian Household Consumption, Debt and Savings

  Staff working paper 2020-51 James (Jim) C. MacGee, Thomas Michael Pugh, Kurt See

  The impact of COVID-19 on Canadian households’ debt and unplanned savings varies by household income. Low-income and high-income households accrued unplanned savings, while middle-income households tended to accumulate more debt.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, E24, G, G5, G51 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Household and business credit, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting

• A Macroeconomic Model of an Epidemic with Silent Transmission and Endogenous Self-isolation

  Staff working paper 2020-50 Antonio Diez de los Rios

  We study the interaction between epidemics and economic decisions in a model that has silent transmission of the virus. We find that rational behaviour strongly diminishes the severity of the epidemic but worsens the economic recession. We also find that the detection and isolation of not only symptomatic individuals but also those who are infected and asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic can reduce the severity of the recession caused by the pandemic.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E1, H, H0, I, I1 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply

• Assessing Global Potential Output Growth: October 2020

  Staff discussion paper 2020-10 Xin Scott Chen, Ali Jaffery, Guillaume Nolin, Karim Salhab, Peter Shannon, Subrata Sarker

  This paper presents updated estimates of potential output growth for the global economy through 2022. Global potential output growth is expected to decline sharply in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and recover partially by the end of the projection horizon of the October 2020 Monetary Policy Report.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): E, E1, E10, E2, E20, O, O4 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply, Digitalization and productivity

• How Should Unemployment Insurance Vary over the Business Cycle?

  Staff working paper 2020-47 Serdar Birinci, Kurt See

  Should unemployment benefits be more generous during economic downturns? The optimal amount and duration of benefit payments ultimately depend on the demographic and wealth characteristics of benefit recipients.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, E3, E32, J, J6, J64, J65 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply

• Production Networks and the Propagation of Commodity Price Shocks

  Staff working paper 2020-44 Shutao Cao, Wei Dong

  We examine the macro implications of commodity price shocks in a model with multiple production sectors that are interconnected within a commodity-exporting small open economy.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D5, D57, F, F4, F41 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, International trade, finance and competitiveness

• Potential output in Canada: 2020 reassessment

  Staff analytical note 2020-25 Dany Brouillette, Julien Champagne, Julien McDonald-Guimond

  After COVID-19, we expect potential output growth to stabilize around 1.2 percent. This is lower than the 2010–18 average growth of 1.8 percent. Relative to the April 2019 reassessment, the growth profile is revised down. Given the unknown course of the pandemic, uncertainty around these estimates is higher than in previous years.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E0, E00, E2, E23, E24, E3, E37, E6 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply, Digitalization and productivity

• The New Benchmark for Forecasts of the Real Price of Crude Oil

  Staff working paper 2020-39 Amor Aniss Benmoussa, Reinhard Ellwanger, Stephen Snudden

  How can we assess the quality of a forecast? We propose a new benchmark to evaluate forecasts of temporally aggregated series and show that the real price of oil is more difficult to predict than we thought.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C5, C53, Q, Q4, Q47 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting

• Cyclicality of Schooling: New Evidence from Unobserved Components Models

  Staff working paper 2020-38 Barbara Sadaba, Sunčica Vujič, Sofia Maier

  What is the time-varying impact of economic cycles on decisions to invest in human capital?

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C3, C32, E, E3, I, I2, J, J2 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting