Monetary policy framework

• The Cyclicality of Sales, Regular and Effective Prices: Business Cycle and Policy Implications

  Staff Working Paper 2013-1 Olivier Coibion, Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Gee Hee Hong

  We study the cyclical properties of sales, regular price changes and average prices paid by consumers (“effective” prices) using data on prices and quantities sold for numerous retailers across many U.S. metropolitan areas.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Inflation and prices, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E3, E4, E5
• November 15, 2012

  Monetary Policy and the Risk-Taking Channel: Insights from the Lending Behaviour of Banks

  Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2012 Teodora Paligorova, Jesus Sierra

  The financial crisis of 2007-09 and the subsequent extended period of historically low real interest rates have revived the question of whether economic agents are willing to take on more risk when interest rates remain low for a prolonged time period. This increased appetite for risk, which causes economic agents to search for investment assets and strategies that generate higher investment returns, has been called the risk-taking channel of monetary policy. Recent academic research on banks suggests that lending policies in times of low interest rates can be consistent with the existence of a risk-taking channel of monetary policy in Europe, South America, the United States and Canada. Specifically, studies find that the terms of loans to risky borrowers become less stringent in periods of low interest rates. This risk-taking channel may amplify the effects of traditional transmission mechanisms, resulting in the creation of excessive credit.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Research Topic(s): Financial institutions, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E5, E58, G, G2, G21

• Unconventional Monetary Policy and the Great Recession: Estimating the Macroeconomic Effects of a Spread Compression at the Zero Lower Bound

  Staff Working Paper 2012-21 Christiane Baumeister, Luca Benati

  We explore the macroeconomic effects of a compression in the long-term bond yield spread within the context of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 via a time-varying parameter structural VAR model.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Interest rates, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): C, C1, C11, C3, C32, E, E5, E52, E58

• Commodities and Monetary Policy: Implications for Inflation and Price Level Targeting

  Staff Working Paper 2012-16 Donald Coletti, René Lalonde, Paul Masson, Dirk Muir, Stephen Snudden

  We examine the relative ability of simple inflation targeting (IT) and price level targeting (PLT) monetary policy rules to minimize both inflation variability and business cycle fluctuations in Canada for shocks that have important consequences for global commodity prices.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Economic models, Inflation and prices, International topics, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E1, E17, E3, E31, E37, E5, E52, F, F4, F41, Q, Q4, Q43
• May 17, 2012

  Inflation Targeting: The Recent International Experience

  Bank of Canada Review - Spring 2012 Robert Lavigne, Rhys R. Mendes, Subrata Sarker

  In the years since the 2006 renewal of Canada’s inflation-control agreement, monetary policy regimes have faced significant shocks, including the global economic and financial crisis. This article reviews the recent experience with inflation targeting, including the debate about the appropriate role of monetary policy in maintaining financial stability. In the aftermath of the crisis, both […]

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Research Topic(s): Credibility, Financial stability, Inflation targets, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E5, E52, E58

• When Is It Less Costly for Risky Firms to Borrow? Evidence from the Bank Risk- Taking Channel of Monetary Policy

  Staff Working Paper 2012-10 Teodora Paligorova, João Santos

  In an investigation of banks’ loan pricing policies in the United States over the past two decades, this study finds supporting evidence for the bank risk-taking channel of monetary policy. We show that banks charge lower spreads when they lend to riskier borrowers relative to the spreads they charge on loans to safer borrowers in periods of low short-term rates compared to periods of high short-term rates.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Financial institutions, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): G, G2, G21

• Macroprudential Rules and Monetary Policy when Financial Frictions Matter

  Staff Working Paper 2012-6 Jeannine Bailliu, Césaire Meh, Yahong Zhang

  This paper examines the interaction between monetary policy and macroprudential policy and whether policy makers should respond to financial imbalances. To address this issue, we build a dynamic general equilibrium model that features financial market frictions and financial shocks as well as standard macroeconomic shocks.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Economic models, Financial markets, Financial stability, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, E5, E50, E6, E60

• Bank Leverage Regulation and Macroeconomic Dynamics

  Staff Working Paper 2011-32 Ian Christensen, Césaire Meh, Kevin Moran

  This paper assesses the merits of countercyclical bank balance sheet regulation for the stabilization of financial and economic cycles and examines its interaction with monetary policy.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial system regulation and policies, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E5, E52, G, G2, G21

• Price-Level Targeting and Inflation Expectations: Experimental Evidence

  Staff Working Paper 2011-18 Robert Amano, Jim Engle-Warnick, Malik Shukayev

  In this paper, we use an economics decision-making experiment to test a key assumption underpinning the efficacy of price-level targeting relative to inflation targeting for business cycle stabilization and mitigating the effects of the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E5, E52
• August 18, 2011

  The BoC-GEM-Fin: Banking in the Global Economy

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2011 Carlos De Resende, René Lalonde

  This article describes the Bank of Canada’s version of the Global Economy Model structured to incorporate an active banking system that features an interbank market and cross-border lending. After describing the new model, the authors use it to examine the responses of selected U.S. and Canadian macroeconomic variables to a “credit crunch” in the United States and also to study the impact of changes in the regulatory limits to bank leverage in Canada. They also discuss the relative merits of a monetary policy framework based on inflation targeting and one based on price-level targeting in the presence of shocks to the U.S. and Canadian banking sectors.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Research Topic(s): Economic models, Financial institutions, Financial system regulation and policies, Monetary policy framework