Business fluctuations and cycles
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Are Commodity Prices Useful Leading Indicators of Inflation?
Commodity prices have increased dramatically and persistently over the past several years, followed by a sharp reversal in recent months. These large and persistent movements in commodity prices raise questions about their implications for global inflation. The process of globalization has motivated much debate over whether global factors have become more important in driving the […] -
Inventories, Markups, and Real Rigidities in Menu Cost Models
Real rigidities that limit the responsiveness of real marginal cost to output are a key ingredient of sticky price models necessary to account for the dynamics of output and inflation. We argue here, in the spirit of Bils and Kahn (2000), that the behavior of marginal cost over the cycle is directly related to that of inventories, data on which is readily available. -
On the Amplification Role of Collateral Constraints
Following the seminal contribution of Kiyotaki and Moore (1997), the role of collateral constraints for business cycle fluctuations has been highlighted by several authors and collateralized debt is becoming a popular feature of business cycle models. -
A Model of Housing Boom and Bust in a Small Open Economy
This paper considers a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model for a small open economy and finds that an improvement in the terms of trade causes a housing boom-bust cycle if the duration of the improvement is uncertain. -
Electronic Transactions as High-Frequency Indicators of Economic Activity
Since the advent of standard national accounts data over 60 years ago, economists have traditionally relied on monthly or quarterly data supplied by central statistical agencies for macroeconomic modelling and forecasting. -
The Impact of Emerging Asia on Commodity Prices
Over the past 5 years, real energy and non-energy commodity prices have trended sharply higher. These relative price movements have had important implications for inflation and economic activity in both Canada and the rest of the world. China has accounted for the bulk of incremental demand for oil and many base metals over this period. -
The Bank of Canada's Version of the Global Economy Model (BoC-GEM)
The Bank of Canada's version of the Global Economy Model (BoC-GEM) is derived from the model created at the International Monetary Fund by Douglas Laxton (IMF) and Paolo Pesenti (Federal Reserve Bank of New York and National Bureau of Economic Research). -
Cyclical Behavior of Debt and Equity Using a Panel of Canadian Firms
We document the cyclical behavior of debt, equity, and retained earnings for different firm categories using firm-level Canadian data. -
The Canadian Business Cycle: A Comparison of Models
This paper examines the ability of linear and nonlinear models to replicate features of real Canadian GDP. We evaluate the models using various business-cycle metrics.