Understanding Monetary Policy and its Effects: Evidence from Canadian Firms Using the Business Outlook Survey Staff working paper 2017-24 Matthieu Verstraete, Lena Suchanek This paper shows (i) that business sentiment, as captured by survey data, matters for monetary policy decisions in Canada, and (ii) how business perspectives are affected by monetary policy shocks. Measures of business sentiment (soft data) are shown to have systematic explanatory power for monetary policy decisions over and above typical Taylor rule variables. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D2, D22, E, E4, E44, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Monetary policy tools and implementation, Real economy and forecasting
Understanding the Cross‐Country Effects of US Technology Shocks Staff working paper 2017-23 Thuy Lan Nguyen, Wataru Miyamoto Business cycles are substantially correlated across countries. Yet most existing models are not able to generate substantial transmission through international trade. We show that the nature of such transmission depends fundamentally on the features determining the responsiveness of labor supply and labor demand to international relative prices. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E3, E30, F, F4, F41, F44, F6, F62 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, International trade, finance and competitiveness
Detecting Scapegoat Effects in the Relationship Between Exchange Rates and Macroeconomic Fundamentals Staff working paper 2017-22 Lorenzo Pozzi, Barbara Sadaba This paper presents a new testing method for the scapegoat model of exchange rates that aims to tighten the link between the theory on scapegoats and its empirical implementation. This new testing method consists of a number of steps. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C3, C32, F, F3, F31, G, G1, G15 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, International markets and currencies, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods
Should Central Banks Worry About Nonlinearities of their Large-Scale Macroeconomic Models? Staff working paper 2017-21 Vadym Lepetyuk, Lilia Maliar, Serguei Maliar How wrong could policymakers be when using linearized solutions to their macroeconomic models instead of nonlinear global solutions? Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C6, C61, C63, C68, E, E3, E31, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Economic models, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission
Volatility Risk and Economic Welfare Staff working paper 2017-20 Shaofeng Xu This paper examines the effects of time-varying volatility on welfare. I construct a tractable endogenous growth model with recursive preferences, stochastic volatility, and capital adjustment costs. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, E3 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting
Assessing the Predictive Ability of Sovereign Default Risk on Exchange Rate Returns Staff working paper 2017-19 Claudia Foroni, Francesco Ravazzolo, Barbara Sadaba Increased sovereign credit risk is often associated with sharp currency movements. Therefore, expectations of the probability of a sovereign default event can convey important information regarding future movements of exchange rates. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C2, C22, C5, C52, C53, F, F3, F31 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, International markets and currencies, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods
The Welfare Effects of Protection: A General Equilibrium Analysis of Canada’s National Policy Staff working paper 2017-18 Patrick Alexander, Ian Keay In this paper, we study the impact of Canada’s adoption of protectionist trade policy in 1879 on Canadian welfare. Under the National Policy the Canadian average weighted tariff increased from 14% to 21%. The conventional view is that this was a distortionary policy that negatively affected Canadian welfare. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): F, F1, F13, F14, F4, F42, F6, F60, N, N7, N71 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, International trade, finance and competitiveness
Vertical Specialization and Gains from Trade Staff working paper 2017-17 Patrick Alexander Multi-stage production is widely recognized as an important feature of the modern global economy. This feature has been incorporated into many state-of-the-art quantitative trade models, and has been shown to deliver significant additional gains from international trade. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): F, F1, F11, F14, F6, F60 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Structural challenges, International trade, finance and competitiveness
Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity Meets the Zero Lower Bound Staff working paper 2017-16 Robert Amano, Stefano Gnocchi We add downward nominal wage rigidity to a standard New Keynesian model with sticky prices and wages, where the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates is allowed to bind. We find that wage rigidity not only reduces the frequency of zero bound episodes but also mitigates the severity of corresponding recessions. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, E3, E32, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Real economy and forecasting
Constrained Efficiency with Adverse Selection and Directed Search Staff working paper 2017-15 Mohammad Davoodalhosseini Constrained efficient allocation (CE) is characterized in a model of adverse selection and directed search (Guerrieri, Shimer, and Wright (2010)). CE is defined to be the allocation that maximizes welfare, the ex-ante utility of all agents, subject to the frictions of the environment. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D8, D82, D83, E, E2, E24, G, G1, J, J3, J31, J6, J64 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market structure, Financial system, Financial system regulation and oversight, Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission