Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

• Do hedge funds support liquidity in the Government of Canada bond market?

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-11 Jabir Sandhu, Rishi Vala

  While Government of Canada bond transactions of hedge funds are typically in the opposite direction to those of other market participants, during the peak period of market turmoil in March 2020, hedge funds sold these bonds, just as other market participants did. This shows that hedge funds can at times contribute to one-sided markets and amplify declines in market liquidity.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Financial markets, Financial stability, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D4, D47, D5, D53, G, G1, G12, G14, G2, G23

• Global Demand and Supply Sentiment: Evidence from Earnings Calls

  Staff Working Paper 2023-37 Temel Taskin, Franz Ulrich Ruch

  This paper quantifies global demand, supply and uncertainty shocks and compares two major global recessions: the 2008–09 Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. We use two alternate approaches to decompose economic shocks: text mining techniques on earnings calls transcripts and a structural Bayesian vector autoregression model.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C1, C11, C3, C32, E, E3, E32, G, G1, G10

• SME Failures Under Large Liquidity Shocks: An Application to the COVID-19 Crisis

  Staff Working Paper 2023-32 Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan, Veronika Penciakova, Nicholas Sander

  We study the effects of financial frictions on firm exit when firms face large liquidity shocks. We develop a simple model of firm cost-minimization that introduces a financial friction that limits firms’ borrowing capacity to smooth temporary shocks to liquidity.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Firm dynamics, International topics JEL Code(s): D, D2, D21, D22, E, E6, E65, H, H8, H81
• June 8, 2023

  Economic progress report: Are we entering a new era of higher interest rates?

  Remarks Paul Beaudry Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce Victoria, British Columbia

  Deputy Governor Paul Beaudry discusses the latest interest rate decision and suggests reasons why longer-term interest rates could remain higher than they were before the pandemic.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Remarks Topic(s): Central bank research, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Domestic demand and components, Expectations, Housing, Inflation and prices, Inflation targets, Interest rates, Labour markets, Monetary policy, Monetary policy transmission, Price stability, Recent economic and financial developments, Service sector
• June 8, 2023

  Adjusting to higher interest rates

  Speech summary Paul Beaudry Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce Victoria, British Columbia

  Speaking a day after we raised interest rates, Deputy Governor Paul Beaudry talks about what Governing Council considered in its decision. He also suggests reasons why long-term interest rates could remain higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Speech summaries Topic(s): Central bank research, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Domestic demand and components, Expectations, Housing, Inflation and prices, Inflation targets, Interest rates, Labour markets, Monetary policy, Monetary policy transmission, Price stability, Recent economic and financial developments, Service sector

• Time Use and Macroeconomic Uncertainty

  Staff Working Paper 2023-29 Matteo Cacciatore, Stefano Gnocchi, Daniela Hauser

  We estimate the effects of economic uncertainty on time use and discuss its macroeconomic implications. We develop a model to demonstrate that substitution between market and non-market work provides an additional insurance margin to households, weakening precautionary savings and labour supply and lowering aggregate demand, ultimately amplifying the contractionary effects of uncertainty.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Domestic demand and components, Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, E3, E32, E5, E52, J, J2, J22

• Benchmarks for assessing labour market health: 2023 update

  Staff Analytical Note 2023-7 Erik Ens, Kurt See, Corinne Luu

  We enhance benchmarks for assessing strength in the Canadian labour market. We find the labour market remains tight despite recent strong increases in labour supply, including among prime-working-age women. We also assess the anticipated easing in labour conditions in a context of high population growth.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Econometric and statistical methods, Labour markets, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E2, E24, J, J2, J21, J6

• A Review of the Bank of Canada’s Support of Key Financial Markets During the COVID-19 Crisis

  Staff Discussion Paper 2023-9 Joshua Fernandes, Michael Mueller

  The COVID-19 pandemic placed unprecedented strain on the global financial system. We describe how the Bank of Canada responded to the rapidly deteriorating liquidity in core Canadian fixed-income markets.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Financial markets, Market structure and pricing, Monetary policy and uncertainty JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E5, E58, G, G0, G01

• Turning Words into Numbers: Measuring News Media Coverage of Shortages

  Staff Discussion Paper 2023-8 Lin Chen, Stephanie Houle

  We develop high-frequency, news-based indicators using natural language processing methods to analyze news media texts. Our indicators track both supply (raw, intermediate and final goods) and labour shortages over time. They also provide weekly time-varying topic narratives about various types of shortages.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Econometric and statistical methods, Monetary policy and uncertainty, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): C, C5, C55, C8, C82, E, E3, E37
• March 29, 2023

  Lessons from our support of financial markets in tough times

  Speech summary Toni Gravelle National Bank Financial Services Conference Montréal, Quebec

  Deputy Governor Toni Gravelle talks about how the Bank of Canada supported markets during the COVID-19 pandemic and what we might do differently in the future. He also discusses recent turmoil in the banking system in the United States and overseas.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Speech summaries Topic(s): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Financial markets, Financial stability, Lender of last resort, Recent economic and financial developments