International Business Cycles and Financial Frictions Staff Working Paper 2012-19 Wen Yao This paper builds a two-country DSGE model to study the quantitative impact of financial frictions on business cycle co-movements when investors have foreign asset exposure. The investor in each country holds capital in both countries and faces a leverage constraint on her debt. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, International financial markets, International topics JEL Code(s): E, E3, E30, F, F4, F42, F44
Consumer Bankruptcy and Information Staff Working Paper 2012-18 Jason Allen, H. Evren Damar, David Martinez-Miera We analyze the relationship between the intensity of banks’ use of soft-information and household bankruptcy patterns. Using a unique data set on the universe of Canadian household bankruptcies, we document that bankruptcy rates are higher in markets where the collection of soft, or qualitative locally gathered information, is the weakest. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial services JEL Code(s): D, D4, G, G2
On the Existence and Fragility of Repo Markets Staff Working Paper 2012-17 Hajime Tomura This paper presents a model of an over-the-counter bond market in which bond dealers and cash investors arrange repurchase agreements (repos) endogenously. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Financial markets, Financial stability, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): G, G2, G24
Commodities and Monetary Policy: Implications for Inflation and Price Level Targeting Staff Working Paper 2012-16 Donald Coletti, René Lalonde, Paul Masson, Dirk Muir, Stephen Snudden We examine the relative ability of simple inflation targeting (IT) and price level targeting (PLT) monetary policy rules to minimize both inflation variability and business cycle fluctuations in Canada for shocks that have important consequences for global commodity prices. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Economic models, Inflation and prices, International topics, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E1, E17, E3, E31, E37, E5, E52, F, F4, F41, Q, Q4, Q43
Estimating the Demand for Settlement Balances in the Canadian Large Value Transfer System Staff Working Paper 2012-15 Nellie Zhang This paper applies a static model of an interest rate corridor to the Canadian data, and estimates the aggregate demand for central-bank settlement balances in the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Interest rates, Monetary policy implementation, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C3, C36, E, E4, E40, E5, E50, G, G0, G01
The Impact of Retail Payment Innovations on Cash Usage Staff Working Paper 2012-14 Ben Fung, Kim Huynh, Leonard Sabetti Many predict that innovations in retail payment may render cash obsolete. We investigate this possibility in the context of recent payment innovations such as contactless-credit and stored-value cards. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Financial services, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): C, C3, C35, C8, C83, E, E4, E41
Changes in the Effects of Monetary Policy on Disaggregate Price Dynamics Staff Working Paper 2012-13 Christiane Baumeister, Philip Liu, Haroon Mumtaz We examine the evolution of the effects of monetary policy shocks on the distribution of disaggregate prices and quantities of personal consumption expenditures to assess the contribution of monetary policy to changes in U.S. inflation dynamics. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E3, E30, E32
House Price Dynamics: Fundamentals and Expectations Staff Working Paper 2012-12 Eleonora Granziera, Sharon Kozicki We investigate whether expectations that are not fully rational have the potential to explain the evolution of house prices and the price-to-rent ratio in the United States. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Asset pricing, Domestic demand and components, Economic models JEL Code(s): E, E3, E6, E65, R, R2, R21
Risk Premium, Variance Premium and the Maturity Structure of Uncertainty Staff Working Paper 2012-11 Bruno Feunou, Jean-Sébastien Fontaine, Abderrahim Taamouti, Roméo Tedongap Expected returns vary when investors face time-varying investment opportunities. Long-run risk models (Bansal and Yaron 2004) and no-arbitrage affine models (Duffie, Pan, and Singleton 2000) emphasize sources of risk that are not observable to the econometrician. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial services JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12, G13
When Is It Less Costly for Risky Firms to Borrow? Evidence from the Bank Risk- Taking Channel of Monetary Policy Staff Working Paper 2012-10 Teodora Paligorova, João Santos In an investigation of banks’ loan pricing policies in the United States over the past two decades, this study finds supporting evidence for the bank risk-taking channel of monetary policy. We show that banks charge lower spreads when they lend to riskier borrowers relative to the spreads they charge on loans to safer borrowers in periods of low short-term rates compared to periods of high short-term rates. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Financial institutions, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): G, G2, G21