Understanding Trend Inflation Through the Lens of the Goods and Services Sectors Staff Working Paper 2020-45 Yunjong Eo, Luis Uzeda, Benjamin Wong The goods and services sectors have experienced considerably different dynamics over the past three decades. Our goal in this paper is to understand how such contrasting behaviors at the sectoral level affect the aggregate level of trend inflation dynamics. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): C, C1, C11, C3, C32, E, E3, E31, E5, E52
What do high-frequency expenditure network data reveal about spending and inflation during COVID‑19? Staff Analytical Note 2020-20 Kim Huynh, Helen Lao, Patrick Sabourin, Angelika Welte The official consumer price index (CPI) inflation measure, based on a fixed basket set before the COVID 19 pandemic, may not fully reflect what consumers are currently experiencing. We partnered with Statistics Canada to construct a more representative index for the pandemic with weights based on real-time transaction and survey data. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): D, D1, D12, E, E3, E31, E4, E42, E5, E52
Average is Good Enough: Average-inflation Targeting and the ELB Staff Working Paper 2020-31 Robert Amano, Stefano Gnocchi, Sylvain Leduc, Joel Wagner The Great Recession and current pandemic have focused attention on the constraint on nominal interest rates from the effective lower bound. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E32, E5, E52
Endogenous Time Variation in Vector Autoregressions Staff Working Paper 2020-16 Danilo Leiva-Leon, Luis Uzeda We introduce a new class of time-varying parameter vector autoregressions (TVP-VARs) where the identified structural innovations are allowed to influence — contemporaneously and with a lag — the dynamics of the intercept and autoregressive coefficients in these models. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): C, C1, C11, C3, C32, E, E3, E31, E5, E52
Multi-Product Pricing: Theory and Evidence from Large Retailers in Israel Staff Working Paper 2020-12 Marco Bonomo, Carlos Carvalho, Oleksiy Kryvtsov, Sigal Ribon, Rodolfo Rigato Standard theories of price adjustment are based on the problem of a single-product firm, and therefore they may not be well suited to analyze price dynamics in the economy with multiproduct firms. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Market structure and pricing, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): D, D2, D21, D22, E, E3, E31, E5, E52, L, L1, L11
A Comprehensive Evaluation of Measures of Core Inflation in Canada: An Update Staff Discussion Paper 2019-9 Helen Lao, Ceciline Steyn We provide an updated evaluation of the value of various measures of core inflation that could be used in the conduct of monetary policy. We find that the Bank of Canada’s current preferred measures of core inflation—CPI-trim, CPI-median and CPI-common—continue to outperform alternative core measures across a range of criteria. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E5, E52
Exploring Wage Phillips Curves in Advanced Economies Staff Discussion Paper 2019-8 Rose Cunningham, Vikram Rai, Kristina Hess We investigate the extent to which excess supply (demand) in labour markets contributes to a lower (higher) growth rate of average nominal wages for workers. Using panel methods on data from 10 advanced economies for 1992–2018, we produce reduced-form estimates of a wage Phillips curve specification that is consistent with a New Keynesian framework. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Labour markets, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): C, C3, C33, E, E3, E31, E32
Drivers of Weak Wage Growth in Advanced Economies Staff Analytical Note 2019-3 Anne-Katherine Cormier, Michael Francis, Kristina Hess, Guillaume Poulin-Bellisle Since the global financial crisis, advanced-economy wage growth has been generally low relative to past recoveries, especially after accounting for the evolution of labour market conditions over this period. This paper investigates a variety of potential explanations for this weakness, drawing on findings from the literature as well as analysis of recent labour market data in advanced economies. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): International topics, Labour markets JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, F, F0, J, J3
Limited Commitment, Endogenous Credibility and the Challenges of Price-level Targeting Staff Working Paper 2018-61 Gino Cateau, Malik Shukayev This paper studies the cost of limited commitment when a central bank has the discretion to adjust policy whenever the costs of honoring its past commitments become high. Specifically, we consider a central bank that seeks to implement optimal policy in a New Keynesian model by committing to a price-level target path. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Credibility, Inflation targets, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E5, E52
Introducing a Systematic Measure of Idiosyncratic Prices Staff Analytical Note 2018-33 Madigan Dockrill, Laurence Savoie-Chabot There is a risk that Bank of Canada staff may inadvertently be biased when analyzing inflation: when inflation surprises on the downside, staff might emphasize negative idiosyncratic factors. When inflation surprises on the upside, staff might emphasize the positive idiosyncratic factors. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31