Final 28-32 (no 31) Flashcards
What two options does BOC have in monetary policy?
Either target M-supply (increase M, i-rates fall) or target i-rate (drop i-rates, BOC accommodates the increase in demand for money by jacking up M)
What are the problems with targeting the M-supply?
(1) Although BOC can control reserves through OMO, it has no control over deposit expansion; no guarantee that dropping the bank rate will make banks increase loans (2) BOC is unsure about the position and slope of L
Which of the two approaches does BOC use?
Sets i-rates the accommodates by changing M-supply through OMO (buying/selling bonds), resulting in a change in L
What are the five buttons or policy instruments used to implement monetary policy?
overnight rate and bank rate, open market operations, buyback operations (fine-tuning), shifting government money between BOC and chartered banks, announcement effect
What are the operational or intermediate targets?
exchange rate, money supply, or interest rate to target inflation rate
What are the policy or ultimate targets?
Y: stable economic growth, U: low unemployment, P: low inflation
Yield curve/distribution of i-rates (moves in tandem)
term structure of i-rates; i-rates on borrowing increase as maturity increases; the longer the loan, the quality of borrower falls, risk increases
Overnight rate
1-day i-rate for banks to borrow either from each other or investment dealers if they have insufficient funds to clear cheques; cheapest and shortest maturity to the safest borrower; start of the yield curve
Prime rate
banks loan to reputable corporations
Mortgage rates
rate of interest charged in exchange for taking title of the debtor’s (borrower’s) property; banks can seize the home if borrower defaults on the loan
Overnight rate target
BOC’s desired ONR target announced 8x a year on fixed announcement dates
Overnight rate operational band
Within the operating band, which ranges 50 basis points (1 basis point= 0.01%) below the bank rate, ONR will hover around BOC’s target ONR
Bank rate
upper limit of the ONR operating band; rate that BOC charges to lend to banks
Deposit rate
lower limit of ONR operating band; rate that BOC pays to borrow from banks or i-rate paid on deposits at the Bank
What is the Canadian approach with the ONR?
BOC lowers the ONR by setting the bank rate instantly, ONR sets the distribution all i-rates and yield curve shifts down, demand for money increases along the L curve, BOC accomodates L by increasing M (a passive accomodation/endogenous)
What is the Canadian approach with OMO?
(1) Easy M-policy: As L increases, BOC buys bonds to increase excess reserves in banks, which may increase M-supply when banks loan out, and i-rates fall (2) Tight M-policy: the opposite
Quantitative easing
another form of OMO where BOC buys long term bonds e.g. G-bonds
Credit easing
another form of OMO where BOC buys long-term commercial bonds e.g. collateralized debt obligations or a loan with collateral if it goes into default
What are buyback operations?
BOC uses specials and reverses to stabilize ONR within 1 basis point of its ONR target; fine-tuning
Specials
special purchase and resale agreement; a transaction where BOC offers to purchase government securities from major financial players with an agreement to sell them back at a predetermined price the next business day; BOC puts cash into the system for a day to offset upward pressure on ONR
Reverses
sale and repurchase agreement; BOC offers to sell bonds and takes cash out of the system to offset downward pressure on ONR
What is shifting?
cash management when BOC shifts Govt’s deposits (e.g. tax revenue) between BOC and banks; a day-to-day instrument to reinforce ONR (specials and reverses)
How does shifting occur?
To chartered bank: increased reserves and M; From chartered bank: decreased reserved and M
Announcement effect (fixed announcement dates)
BOC announces ONR on 8 predetermined dates in the year (every 6 weeks); sends signal to the economy on BOC’s intentions with monetary policy (forward guidance)
Macro-prudential regulation
BOC announces that they want to be careful: flag asset bubbles (out of control inflationary increases in P of an asset) in advance, cooly command banks to pull back e.g. regulations, required reserves etc.
Taylor rule
Central banks link their i-rates to their inflation rates to their output gaps: i=i* + a(π-π) + b(y-y); if inflation and output are above their targets, BOC raises i-rates
What are the complications in inflation targeting?
Food and energy prices are volatile, inflation rate and exchange rate are inextricably linked (changes in ER affect inflation and output gap), regional differences in Canada (M-policy is a national lever)
Operational guide or Core CPI
CPI excluding food, energy, indirect taxes because P changes unrelated to GDP and output gaps
What can’t monetary policy do?
identify and correct asset price misalignments (e.g. asset bubbles), stabilize ER and inflation rate at the same time, mitigate regional or sectoral differences in growth rates
Recession
two quarters of negative economic growth; according to NBER: low output, high U, low personal, low sales; assess the duration, depth, and dispersion
What are the costs of unanticipated inflation?
reduction in purchasing power, arbitrary redistribution of income (e.g. money from creditors to debtors, employees to employers), creates uncertainty that lowers I, distorts P mechanism and allocation of resources
Price signal distortion hypothesis
inflation interferes with information conveyed by price changes
How do prices increase?
(1) decrease in supply = cost push inflation (2) increase in demand = demand pull inflation
Temporary inflation
one time price increase (goes up and stays); Y returns to Y* at higher prices (wage adjustment)
Constant inflation
sustained and constant P increase caused by expectation inflation; a stable rate of change in P
Accelerating inflation
sustained and increasing inflation caused by expectation inflation and gap inflation; a increasing rate of change in P
Disflation
decreasing rate of change in P; still moving forward but slowing down
Deflation
negative rate of inflation
Why do wages (input prices) change?
due to an “effect” or the effect of expectations or gap on nominal wages
Expectation effect- money wages can rise without an inflationary gap!
expected inflation gets built into wage demands; a self-fulfilling prophecy: if employees expect a 2% inflation, employees will negotiate wage contracts with a 2% increase in nominal wages (W), shifting SRAS vertically by 2%, keeping real wages constant
Real wages
w= W/P
What causes expectation inflation?
(1) Backward looking: history repeats itself, though may take a long time to develop psychological trend (2) Forward looking: workers look to govt. macroeconomic policy and make rational expectations (best possible use of all relevant info)
Gap effect or labour market effect
(1) Excess supply of labour causes W to fall: recessionary (2) Excess demand for labour causes W to rise: inflationary (3) When D=S for labour, Y=Y*=Y at FE, natural or normal U or NAIRU (frictional and structural)
Total effect on money wages
increase in the rate of change in W (due to increase in Pe or decrease in U) decomposed into expectation effect (psychological) topped up by the gap effect (excess DN)
Why does an increase in W cause an increase in P (output prices)?
Price setting model: businesses markup their prices; P=(1+m)W
Actual inflation
expectation inflation + gap inflation + exogenous supply shock inflation; all 3 cause SRAS to shift up to the left
Constant inflation
monetary validation by BOC where M is increased at a rate to guarantee actual inflation=expected inflation; Y returns to Y* at a higher price