Prima: The Bank of Canada’s New Projection and Policy-Analysis Model—An Overview Staff analytical paper 2026-47 Donald Coletti, Martin Kuncl, Martin Harding, Dmitry Matveev, Tolga Özden, Yang Zhang Prima is the Bank of Canada’s new model for projection and policy analysis. It builds on the economic foundations of earlier Bank models, adding detail on how sectoral pressures affect production costs and their pass-through to consumer prices. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): C, C4, C43, C8, C82, E, E3, E30, E31, E37 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting
Sector-based producer price indexes: New measures of producer price pressures in Canada Staff analytical paper 2026-46 Yena Joo, Ali Rouhghalandari, Vivian Chu, Xin Ha Producer price indexes measure changes in the prices that producers receive for their outputs or that they pay for their inputs. Statistics Canada publishes a range of producer price indexes for specific products and industries. For the first time, these series have been combined into a small set of broad sectoral measures. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical paper JEL Code(s): C, C4, C43, C8, C82, E, E3, E30, E31, E37 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Economic models, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting
Seeing the Economy through Colored Glasses: Partisanship in Macro and (not in) Micro Expectations Staff working paper 2026-24 Adrian Monninger, Kyung Woong Koh, Tao Wang Households report distinctive views of the macroeconomy along partisan lines, while their expectations about personal finances do not follow the same pattern. Economic inequality remains the major contributor to polarized views of the macroeconomy. Partisan politics are simply a magnifier. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, E3, E30, E7, E71 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Real economy and forecasting
Uncovering Subjective Models from Survey Expectations Staff working paper 2025-31 Chenyu Hou, Tao Wang This paper shows that survey expectations can be used to uncover how households subjectively think about inflation and unemployment dynamics jointly. The commonly documented "stagflation view", namely the households' tendency to associate inflation with a worse labor market, implies amplified impacts of supply shocks and dampened ones of demand shocks. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D8, D84, E, E2, E21, E3, E30, E32, E7, E71 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Economic models, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting
High-Frequency Cross-Sectional Identification of Military News Shocks Staff working paper 2025-27 Francesco Amodeo, Edoardo Briganti We identify and quantify fiscal news shocks, compiling events (2001–2023) that altered the expected path of U.S. defense expenditure. For each event, we estimate market-implied shifts in expected spending. A shift-share analysis yields a two-year, metropolitan statistical area–level GDP multiplier of approximately 1 for U.S. military build-ups. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, E20, E3, E30, E32, E6, E60, E62, E65 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Economic models, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Real economy and forecasting
Assessing tariff pass-through to consumer prices in Canada: Lessons from 2018 Staff analytical note 2025-18 Alexander Lam US trade protectionism is making the economic outlook increasingly uncertain. To assess how consumer prices may respond to tariffs, we examine a tariff episode from 2018 using detailed microdata and the synthetic control method. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E3, E30, E31, F, F1, F10, F13, F14 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Structural challenges, International trade, finance and competitiveness
Household Food Inflation in Canada Staff working paper 2024-33 Olena Kostyshyna, Maude Ouellet We study food inflation rates for Canadian households during periods of low and high inflation from 2012Q4 to 2023Q4. Households experienced more varied inflation rates during the recent high inflation. Cumulative food inflation has been 2.2 percentage points higher for lower-income households than for highest-income households since the inflation surge. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, E3, E30, E31, L, L8, L81 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting
Price Discounts and Cheapflation During the Post-Pandemic Inflation Surge Staff working paper 2024-31 Alberto Cavallo, Oleksiy Kryvtsov We study how price variation within a store changes with inflation, and whether households exploit these changes to reduce the burden of inflation. We find that price changes from discounts mitigated the inflation burden while cheapflation exacerbated it. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, E3, E30, E31, L, L8, L81 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures
Persistent Debt and Business Cycles in an Economy with Production Heterogeneity Staff working paper 2023-17 Aubhik Khan, Soyoung Lee We examine the role of debt in amplifying and propagating recessions. Firms’ debt adjustment makes recessions deeper but makes expansions gradual. In particular, when the aggregate business leverage is ten percentage points above average, the half-life of the recovery doubles. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, E23, E3, E30, E32 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Household and business credit, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting
Understanding Post-COVID Inflation Dynamics Staff working paper 2022-50 Martin Harding, Jesper Lindé, Mathias Trabandt We propose a macroeconomic model with a nonlinear Phillips curve that has a flat slope when inflationary pressures are subdued and steepens when inflationary pressures are elevated. Our model can generate more sizable inflation surges due to cost-push and demand shocks than a standard linearized model when inflation is high. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E3, E30, E31, E32, E37, E4, E44, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Monetary policy framework and transmission