October 15, 2003 Bank of Canada keeps target for the overnight rate at 2 3/4 per cent Media Relations Ottawa, Ontario The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 2 3/4 per cent. Content Type(s): Press, Press releases
Governance and Financial Fragility: Evidence from a Cross-Section of Countries Staff Working Paper 2003-34 Michael Francis The author explores the role of governance mechanisms as a means of reducing financial fragility. First, he develops a simple theoretical general-equilibrium model in which instability arises due to an agency problem resulting from a conflict of interest between the borrower and lender. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Financial markets JEL Code(s): G, G0
Do Peer Group Members Outperform Individual Borrowers? A Test of Peer Group Lending Using Canadian Micro-Credit Data Staff Working Paper 2003-33 Rafael Gomez, Eric Santor Microfinance institutions now serve over 10 million poor households in the developing and developed world, and much of their success has been attributed to their innovative use of peer group lending. There is very little empirical evidence, however, to suggest that group lending schemes offer a superior institutional design over lending programs that serve individual borrowers. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Development economics JEL Code(s): E, J, J2, J23, O, O1, O17
The Canadian Phillips Curve and Regime Shifting Staff Working Paper 2003-32 Frédérick Demers Phillips curves are generally estimated under the assumption of linearity and parameter constancy. Linear models of inflation, however, have recently been criticized for their poor forecasting performance. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices JEL Code(s): C, C5, C52, E, E3, E31
A Simple Test of Simple Rules: Can They Improve How Monetary Policy is Implemented with Inflation Targets? Staff Working Paper 2003-31 Nicholas Rowe, David Tulk The authors evaluate whether an assortment of simple rules could improve how the Bank of Canada implements its inflation-targeting monetary policy. They focus on measuring the correlation between the deviations of inflation from the target and the lagged deviations of rule recommendations from the actual policy interest rate. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation targets, Monetary policy implementation JEL Code(s): E, E5
Are Wealth Effects Important for Canada? Staff Working Paper 2003-30 Lise Pichette, Dominique Tremblay The authors examine the link between consumption and disaggregate wealth in Canada. They use a vector-error-correction model in which permanent and transitory shocks are identified using the restrictions implied by cointegration proposed by King, Plosser, Stock, and Watson (1991) and Gonzalo and Granger (1995). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Domestic demand and components JEL Code(s): C, C3, C32, E, E2, E21
September 10, 2003 Governor Reviews Measures to Foster Confidence Media Relations Vancouver, British Columbia Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge said today that substantial progress has been made in building investor and consumer confidence in the face of recent economic shocks and corporate finance and accounting scandals. Content Type(s): Press, Press releases
September 10, 2003 Fostering Confidence Remarks David Dodge Vancouver Board of Trade Vancouver, British Columbia It's great to be back in Vancouver and to renew acquaintances at the Board of Trade. I'm going to spend some time today discussing the Bank of Canada's outlook for the Canadian economy and inflation, and how we are responding. But in order to understand the current economic situation, we need to look at some of the extraordinary events of the past year or so and how those events have affected the economy. Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Remarks
September 5, 2003 Spruce Meadows Roundtable Remarks David Dodge Spruce Meadows Roundtable Spruce Meadows, Alberta Canada's reliance on foreign trade has required us to be active internationalists for decades. Louis Rasminsky, who went on to become Governor of the Bank of Canada, was one of Canada's delegates at the Bretton Woods Conference that led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Rasminsky played an important role, formal and informal, at the talks. Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Remarks
Nominal Rigidities and Exchange Rate Pass-Through in a Structural Model of a Small Open Economy Staff Working Paper 2003-29 Steve Ambler, Ali Dib, Nooman Rebei The authors analyze exchange rate pass-through in an estimated structural model of a small open economy that incorporates three types of nominal rigidity (wages and the prices of domestically produced and imported goods) and eight different structural shocks. The model is estimated using quarterly data from Canada and the United States. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, Exchange rates, Inflation and prices, International topics JEL Code(s): F, F2, F3, F31, F33