Capital-Goods Imports and US Growth Staff working paper 2018-1 Michele Cavallo, Anthony Landry Capital-goods imports have become an increasing source of growth for the U.S. economy. To understand this phenomenon, we build a neoclassical growth model with international trade in capital goods in which agents face exogenous paths of total factor and investment-specific productivity measures. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E2, F, F2, F4, O, O3, O4 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Digitalization and productivity, International trade, finance and competitiveness
The Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases on the Canadian Economy Staff analytical note 2017-26 Dany Brouillette, Daniel Gao, Olivier Gervais, Calista Cheung This note reviews the channels through which scheduled minimum wage increases over the coming years may affect Canadian economic activity and inflation and assesses their macroeconomic impacts. From reduced-form estimates of direct minimum wage pass-through, we find that consumer price index (CPI) inflation could be boosted by about 0.1 percentage point (pp) on average in 2018. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, J, J2, J21, J22, J23 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting
The Evolution of Unobserved Skill Returns in the U.S.: A New Approach Using Panel Data Staff working paper 2017-61 Lance Lochner, Youngmin Park, Youngki Shin Economists disagree about the factors driving the substantial increase in residual wage inequality in the United States over the past few decades. To identify changes in the returns to unobserved skills, we make a novel assumption about the dynamics of skills (especially among older workers) rather than about the stability of skill distributions across cohorts, as is standard. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C2, C23, J, J2, J24, J3, J31 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply
Which Model to Forecast the Target Rate? Staff working paper 2017-60 Bruno Feunou, Jean-Sébastien Fontaine, Jianjian Jin Specifications of the Federal Reserve target rate that have more realistic features mitigate in-sample over-fitting and are favored in the data. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission, Real economy and forecasting
Central Bank Digital Currency: Motivations and Implications Staff discussion paper 2017-16 Walter Engert, Ben Fung The emergence of digital currencies such as Bitcoin and the underlying blockchain and distribution ledger technology have attracted significant attention. These developments have raised the possibility of considerable impacts on the financial system and perhaps the wider economy. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Monetary policy tools and implementation, Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures
The Impacts of Monetary Policy Statements Staff analytical note 2017-22 Bruno Feunou, Corey Garriott, James Kyeong, Raisa Leiderman In this note, we find that market participants react to an unexpected change in the tone of Canadian monetary policy statements. When the market perceives that the Bank of Canada plans to tighten (or alternatively, loosen) the monetary policy earlier than previously expected, the Canadian dollar appreciates (or depreciates) and long-term Government of Canada bond yields increase (or decrease). The tone of a statement is particularly relevant to the market when the policy rate has been unchanged for some time. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E5, E52, F, F3, F31, G, G1, G12 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Monetary policy, Monetary policy framework and transmission
Is the Discretionary Income Effect of Oil Price Shocks a Hoax? Staff working paper 2017-50 Christiane Baumeister, Lutz Kilian, Xiaoqing Zhou The transmission of oil price shocks has been a question of central interest in macroeconomics since the 1970s. There has been renewed interest in this question after the large and persistent fall in the real price of oil in 2014–16. In the context of this debate, Ramey (2017) makes the striking claim that the existing literature on the transmission of oil price shocks is fundamentally confused about the question of how to quantify the effect of oil price shocks. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C5, C51, Q, Q4, Q43 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Economic models, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting
Product Sophistication and the Slowdown in Chinese Export Growth Staff discussion paper 2017-15 Mark Kruger, Walter Steingress, Sri Thanabalasingam Chinese real export growth decelerated considerably during the last decade. This paper argues that the slowdown largely resulted from China moving to a more sophisticated mix of exports: China produced more sophisticated goods over which it had pricing power instead of producing greater volumes of less sophisticated products. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers JEL Code(s): F, F1, F14, F17, O, O1, O10 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, International trade, finance and competitiveness
Evaluating Real GDP Growth Forecasts in the Bank of Canada Monetary Policy Report Staff analytical note 2017-21 André Binette, Dmitri Tchebotarev This paper examines the quality of projections of real GDP growth taken from the Bank of Canada Monetary Policy Report (MPR) since they were first published in 1997. Over the last decade, it has become common practice among the central banking community to discuss forecast performance publicly. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): C, C5, C52, E, E3, E32, E37, E5, E52 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Economic models, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting
On the Tail Risk Premium in the Oil Market Staff working paper 2017-46 Reinhard Ellwanger This paper shows that changes in market participants’ fear of rare events implied by crude oil options contribute to oil price volatility and oil return predictability. Using 25 years of historical data, we document economically large tail risk premia that vary substantially over time and significantly forecast crude oil futures and spot returns. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C5, C53, C58, D, D8, D84, E, E4, E44, G, G1, G12, G13, Q, Q4, Q43 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Structural challenges, International trade, finance and competitiveness