Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1938. / Half-title: The Bank of Canada. Printed in Canada. Published also, without thesis note, under title: The Bank of Canada. Bibliography: p. 371-375.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1993. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

The objective of this thesis is to examine the potential ramifications of allowing Canadian chartered A banks to invest in domestic common equities in excess of current regulations. The need for these investments has been born through attempts by companies to seek new common equity so that they may avoid financial catastrophe. However, as time goes on, it is a practice which can be expected to widen in popularity as chartered banks adjust to their new role as venture-capitalists. We begin our analysis by examining the impact of common equity investments on the financial performance of the chartered banks. Our approach is to conduct simulation studies of chartered bank performance using the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 index as a proxy for common equity behaviour. By adjusting bank financial statements to reflect assumed equity investment levels, we are able to demonstrate the probable impact on a bank's profitability, liquidity, and solvency. The above is followed by an examination of the potential impact of bank common equity holdings on the existing financial markets. In particular, we seek to examine the probable effect on the cost and availability of funds within the debt and equity markets. Finally, we strive to evaluate the public policy issues which are associated with bank common equity investments. These range from fears of potential power abuses derived from the corporate voting-power of common equity, to the impact on corporate bankruptcy costs. Our evaluation is based on a combination of traditional economic theory, along with drawing heavily from the West German experience where bank ownership of common equity has deep historical roots. In general, our findings indicate that chartered bank ownership of common equities should be encouraged subject to several limitations. These limitations are designed to ensure banking system financial stability, as well as to minimize any potential power abuses. In addition, any movement towards bank ownership of common equities should be accompanied by deregulation of traditional banking services so as to ensure minimal disruption to existing markets and services. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

A major contribution of research in workplace literacy has been to explore the part that writing plays in the knowledge-making practices of various professional groups. While such enquiry has revealed that writing is essential to the creation and use of specialized knowledge in the professions, it also points to the need to see writing as part of a larger network of symbolic activity. Researchers have shown that practitioners in certain professions---for example, engineering and architecture---do not produce knowledge solely through the social negotiations of language; rather, acts of writing and reading merge with other symbol-based practices in larger processes of knowledge-making. / A promising area for further research in this regard is the field of economics, where knowledge is constituted through a discourse combining language, mathematics, and visual forms such as graphs. The study reported here examines a particular site of such knowledge-making: the Ottawa head office of the Bank of Canada. Employing an ethnographic methodology that included interviews, informal conversations, on-site observations, reading protocols, tape-recorded meetings, and text analysis, the study examines an ongoing, writing-intensive activity known in the Bank as the "monetary policy process," in which the institution's economists generate knowledge about Present and probable future conditions in the Canadian economy and use this knowledge in formulating and implementing policy. / The central question guiding the study is this: what is the nature of the intellectual collaboration that enables the Bank's economists to transform large amounts of statistical data into focused written knowledge about the Canadian economy and then use this knowledge in making decisions about monetary policy? The study shows that the "monetary policy process" can be viewed as a communal activity in which the economists employ a set of written genres in combination with mathematical models---most importantly, the computer-run Quarterly Projection Model---to carry out their work. The joint, intermeshed use of writing and modelling gives rise to a distinctive pattern of social interaction and a style of collective thinking that allow the economists to produce specialized knowledge about the economy and apply this knowledge to decision-making.

No description available.

UBC's research community recently received a significant boost in financial support for five research hubs that will join the Centre for Brain Health as newly appointed national Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR). Two UBC economics professors were recognized with separate Bank of Canada awards: the Research Fellowship 2008 and the Governor's Award. UBC's Brain Research Centre has recevied $25 million from the Province of BC to establish a new facility focused on translational brain research.

Many communities in Canada are experiencing high levels of unemployment, poverty, social breakdown and environmental degradation. In an effort to address these problems, individuals, community groups and all levels of government, are experimenting with an approach to development called community economic development (CED). CED is a grassroots, bottom-up process that focuses on the creation of stable, viable, and equitable local economies. In trying to implement CED strategies, communities and individuals face many obstacles, one of the most significant of which is a lack of capital. Credit unions are locally-owned and controlled co-operative financial institutions with access to significant pools of “local” capital and therefore logical places for communities to turn. This thesis explores ways these institutions can support community economic development in their communities. An examination of the literature and interviews with credit union leaders and CED practitioners, demonstrate that most credit unions are not involved in CED lending. Nor are they particularly committed to CED ideals. This being said, however, the research shows that there are a few credit unions, in both Canada and the United States, that do participate in CED. These credit unions--some with a holistic commitment to CED, others with a partial commitment--support CED in a variety of ways, only one of which is through financing. In addition to providing access to capital, these credit unions fulfil other support functions such as providing technical assistance, building “community” and supporting community infrastructure development. Credit unions that participate in CED are not typical of the credit union movement. Most credit unions do not play a role in supporting community economic development in their communities. The study found that there are significant barriers to their participation in CED, barriers such as a lack of vision, the nature of CED lending, and competition from private financial institutions. In order for credit unions to participate in CED, these barriers must be removed. Ways to reduce some of the barriers are explored in the thesis. The research shows that in order to be able to participate in CED, credit unions require: a committed leadership, staff with community development expertise, new deposits of capital, a means of subsidizing the costs of CED lending, and institutional mechanisms that reduce risk as well as government support. Ways for credit unions to fulfil these needs are outlined. Lastly, research findings are summarized and conclusions are drawn about the role individual credit unions can play in CED. The kinds of initiatives credit union centrals, governments and planners can adopt to support credit unions in this work also explored.

Many communities in Canada are experiencing high levels of unemployment, poverty, social breakdown and environmental degradation. In an effort to address these problems, individuals, community groups and all levels of government, are experimenting with an approach to development called community economic development (CED). CED is a grassroots, bottom-up process that focuses on the creation of stable, viable, and equitable local economies. In trying to implement CED strategies, communities and individuals face many obstacles, one of the most significant of which is a lack of capital. Credit unions are locally-owned and controlled co-operative financial institutions with access to significant pools of “local” capital and therefore logical places for communities to turn. This thesis explores ways these institutions can support community economic development in their communities. An examination of the literature and interviews with credit union leaders and CED practitioners, demonstrate that most credit unions are not involved in CED lending. Nor are they particularly committed to CED ideals. This being said, however, the research shows that there are a few credit unions, in both Canada and the United States, that do participate in CED. These credit unions--some with a holistic commitment to CED, others with a partial commitment--support CED in a variety of ways, only one of which is through financing. In addition to providing access to capital, these credit unions fulfil other support functions such as providing technical assistance, building “community” and supporting community infrastructure development. Credit unions that participate in CED are not typical of the credit union movement. Most credit unions do not play a role in supporting community economic development in their communities. The study found that there are significant barriers to their participation in CED, barriers such as a lack of vision, the nature of CED lending, and competition from private financial institutions. In order for credit unions to participate in CED, these barriers must be removed. Ways to reduce some of the barriers are explored in the thesis. The research shows that in order to be able to participate in CED, credit unions require: a committed leadership, staff with community development expertise, new deposits of capital, a means of subsidizing the costs of CED lending, and institutional mechanisms that reduce risk as well as government support. Ways for credit unions to fulfil these needs are outlined. Lastly, research findings are summarized and conclusions are drawn about the role individual credit unions can play in CED. The kinds of initiatives credit union centrals, governments and planners can adopt to support credit unions in this work also explored. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The relations between monetary policies, asset prices, and economic growth are important and fundamental questions in macroeconomics. To address these issues, several empirical works have been conducted to investigate these relations. However, few of them have documented whether these relations differ across regimes. In this context, the general motivation of this thesis is to use dependent regime models to examine these relations for the Canadian case. Chapter one empirically analyzes the interest rate behaviour of the Canadian monetary authorities by taking into account the asymmetry in the loss function. We employ a switching regime framework using two estimation strategies: First, we follow Caner and Hansen (2004) Threshold approach. Under this procedure we estimate the threshold values, using the Taylor empirical rules. Second, we estimate the asymmetric policy reaction function following Favero and Rovelli’s (2003) approach. The results reveal that the monetary authorities showed asymmetric preferences and that its reaction function can be better modeled with a nonlinear model. The main contribution of this chapter is to successfully interpret the parameters associated with the Bank of Canada preferences, something that Rodriguez (2008) could not do. Chapter two tries to estimate the interest rate behaviour of the Canadian monetary authorities by expanding the arguments of the loss function for fluctuations in asset prices. Using the same methodology as in the first chapter, our findings suggest that the augmented nonlinear reaction function is a good fit for the data and gives new relevant insights into the influence of asset prices on Canadian monetary policy. These findings about the role of asset prices in the reaction function of the Bank of Canada provide relevant insights regarding the opportunities and limitations of incorporating financial indicators in monetary policy decision making. They also provide financial market participants, such as analysts, bankers and traders, with a better understanding of the impact of stock market index prices on Bank of Canada policy. Stock market stabilization plays a larger role in the interest rate decisions of the Bank of Canada than it is willing to admit. Chapter three provides new evidence on the relation between inflation, relative price variability and economic growth to a panel of Canadian provinces over the period 1981-2008. We use the Bick and Nautz (2008) modified version of Hansen’s (1999) Panel Threshold Model. The evidence strongly supports the view that the relationship between inflation and economic growth is nonlinear. Further investigation suggests that relative price variability is one of the important channels through which inflation affects economic performance in Canadian provinces. When taking into account the cross-section dependence, we find that the critical threshold value slightly changes. It is desirable to keep the inflation rate in a moderate inflation regime because it may be helpful for the achievement of sustainable economic growth. The results seem to indicate that inflation that is too high or too low may have detrimental effects on economic growth.

The relations between monetary policies, asset prices, and economic growth are important and fundamental questions in macroeconomics. To address these issues, several empirical works have been conducted to investigate these relations. However, few of them have documented whether these relations differ across regimes. In this context, the general motivation of this thesis is to use dependent regime models to examine these relations for the Canadian case. Chapter one empirically analyzes the interest rate behaviour of the Canadian monetary authorities by taking into account the asymmetry in the loss function. We employ a switching regime framework using two estimation strategies: First, we follow Caner and Hansen (2004) Threshold approach. Under this procedure we estimate the threshold values, using the Taylor empirical rules. Second, we estimate the asymmetric policy reaction function following Favero and Rovelli’s (2003) approach. The results reveal that the monetary authorities showed asymmetric preferences and that its reaction function can be better modeled with a nonlinear model. The main contribution of this chapter is to successfully interpret the parameters associated with the Bank of Canada preferences, something that Rodriguez (2008) could not do. Chapter two tries to estimate the interest rate behaviour of the Canadian monetary authorities by expanding the arguments of the loss function for fluctuations in asset prices. Using the same methodology as in the first chapter, our findings suggest that the augmented nonlinear reaction function is a good fit for the data and gives new relevant insights into the influence of asset prices on Canadian monetary policy. These findings about the role of asset prices in the reaction function of the Bank of Canada provide relevant insights regarding the opportunities and limitations of incorporating financial indicators in monetary policy decision making. They also provide financial market participants, such as analysts, bankers and traders, with a better understanding of the impact of stock market index prices on Bank of Canada policy. Stock market stabilization plays a larger role in the interest rate decisions of the Bank of Canada than it is willing to admit. Chapter three provides new evidence on the relation between inflation, relative price variability and economic growth to a panel of Canadian provinces over the period 1981-2008. We use the Bick and Nautz (2008) modified version of Hansen’s (1999) Panel Threshold Model. The evidence strongly supports the view that the relationship between inflation and economic growth is nonlinear. Further investigation suggests that relative price variability is one of the important channels through which inflation affects economic performance in Canadian provinces. When taking into account the cross-section dependence, we find that the critical threshold value slightly changes. It is desirable to keep the inflation rate in a moderate inflation regime because it may be helpful for the achievement of sustainable economic growth. The results seem to indicate that inflation that is too high or too low may have detrimental effects on economic growth.