Why Monetary Policy Matters: A Canadian Perspective

This article provides answers to several key questions about Canadian monetary policy. First, what is monetary policy? Second, why does the Bank of Canada focus on the control of inflation rather than other macroeconomic variables? Third, how do the Bank's actions influence the rate of inflation? And, finally, how can monetary policy deliver genuine and significant benefits to society?

The Roads Not Taken: Why the Bank of Canada Stayed With Inflation Targeting

Sticking with the status quo was only one option under debate among monetary experts in the lead-up to renewal of the Bank of Canada’s inflation-targeting mandate, which was announced this week. Several other routes were available. Two of them – namely, targeting nominal GDP or targeting full employment – were arguably non-starters. Two other approaches, however, held more promise: (i) moving to a price-level targeting regime, or (ii) sticking with inflation targeting but with a lower, say 1 percent, target. Nevertheless, the renewal of the status quo keeps in place a coherent monetary policy regime that has served Canadians well.Monetary Policy, Canada, Bank of Canada, inflation targeting

Precision Targeting: The Economics – and Politics – of Improving Canada’s Inflation-Targeting Framework

The Bank of Canada’s inflation-targeting framework, since its inception in 1991, has proven itself a success. Yet further improvements in the system should be considered seriously for inclusion in a renewed monetary policy agreement, between the Bank of Canada and the federal government, and renewal is due in 2011. Some improvements would deliver genuine economic benefits to millions of Canadians over the years ahead. Lowering the target rate for consumer price inflation in particular would help secure the domestic purchasing power of our financial assets. Such a change, however, should be part of a coherent framework, which addresses financial stability goals and political imperatives.Monetary Policy, Bank of Canada, inflation targeting, Statistics Canada, CPI, Ministry of Finance, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions

Fixing Canada’s CPI: A Simple and Sensible Policy Change for Minister Flaherty

Fixing measurement errors in the Consumer Price Index is a small idea that offers big payoffs to Canadians and the government. In this paper, the author says if the upcoming federal budget devoted the resources needed to improve Statistics Canada’s measurement of the Consumer Price Index, Canadians would have a truer sense of changes in the cost of living, monetary policy would be guided by a more accurate measure of inflation, and Minister Flaherty would more easily achieve the government’s commitment to balance the federal budget by 2015/16.Monetary Policy, Consumer Price Index (CPI), Statistics Canada, inflation rate

Use Permits: A Hedonistic Approach Applied to Farmland in the Southeastern US

In the State of Georgia, any agricultural producer who wishes to pump more than 100,000 gallons of water a day for crop irrigation is required to have an irrigation permit. The permit stays with the land and in the event of sale the permit is transferred with the property. Until recently, permits were essentially granted freely to all applicants in the Flint River water basin, without limit. In 1999, however, with increasing demand for water from growing urban Atlanta and several years of drought in the Southeast, the state of Georgia placed a moratorium on the issuance of agricultural water permits in the Flint River basin. This research exploits this policy change within a hedonic pricing framework to estimate the value of irrigation rights in the Southeast US. While the value of irrigation rights has been studied extensively in the western US, differences in property rights and legal regimes, as well as a lack of established water-rights markets in the East, leave us with little information regarding the value of irrigation rights in this setting. Working Paper 06-4

Financial Stability: The Next Frontier for Canadian Monetary Policy

The monetary policy arrangement in Canada has proven very successful. Despite many and varied economic shocks, the Bank of Canada has established the necessary conditions under which the annual rate of inflation, as measured by the rate of change of the Consumer Price Index, has remained very close to its formal 2 percent target for more than 15 years. The recent financial crisis, however, has highlighted the fact that low inflation may not be enough to ensure the stability of the financial system and the economy in general. The goal of achieving and maintaining financial stability has become, in Canada and elsewhere, the next frontier of monetary policy. What is needed is a new Canadian institutional framework to oversee macro-prudential regulation, which would take a systemic approach to safeguarding the financial system as a whole, and clearly define the role of the Bank of Canada within it. It will require the federal government, first, to recognize the importance of the issue and, second, to take the necessary time to assemble the framework with the appropriate parties involved and to assign responsibilities clearly. Doing it right will involve bringing together various policy authorities with different perspectives, specialties, and primary mandates.Monetary Policy, Bank of Canada, inflation targeting, Consumer Price Index (CPI)