Timely identification of coincident systemic conditions and forward-looking capacity to anticipate adverse developments are critical for macroprudential policy. Despite clear recognition of these factors in literature, an evaluation methodology and empirical tests for the information value of...

In this PowerPoint presentation we give an overview of yield curves, show how they are modelled and calibrated and give a brief overview of LIBOR reform.Firstly we explain how to calibrate curves to imply forward rates & discount factors. Secondly, we outline the interpolation, optimization and...

The global economy changed dramatically ever since the US dollar ascended to the top position in the early 1940s as the world’s main reserve currency. As observed from recent events, the United States is both willing and very capable of taking unimaginable measures to defend American...

This paper examines how monetary and macroprudential policies interact and possibly complement each other in achieving their respective price and financial stability objectives. We first review the Canadian experience of housing market cycles and highlight the need to coordinate the two sets of...

In this paper we outline the Lagrangian constrained optimization method to solve complex problems subject to constraints. Firstly we summarize the Lagrangian constrained optimization routine. Secondly we outline a detailed implementation strategy. Thirdly and finally we provide example and solve...

Yield curves are used to imply the forward rates and discount factors from market tradable instruments and are required to discount future cash flows and evaluate the price of all financial contracts. Not all instruments can be included in the yield curve calibration or fitting process, hence we...

Indicators of "trust", "confidence", "optimism" or "sentiment" among consumers and/or investors, are published continuously in the mass media. More importantly, these indices seem not only to reflect how the state of the real economy is perceived by private agents, but can also help predict the...

This paper presents evidence that the economic stall speed concept has some empirical content, and can be moderately useful in forecasting recessions. Specifically, output tends to transition to a slow-growth phase at the end of expansions before falling into a recession, and the paper designs...

How much do informational constraints impact economic outcomes? This paper applies a computational modeling strategy to inventory purchasing decisions. Known as the “newsvendor problem”, statistics theory has found optimal heuristics for firm behavior in conditions of unpredictable consumer...

In this paper a mixed-frequency VAR à la Mariano & Murasawa (2004) with Markov regime switching in the parameters is estimated by Bayesian inference. Unlike earlier studies, that used the pseuo-EM algorithm of Dempster, Laird & Rubin (1977) to estimate the model, this paper describes how to...