the success of the current framework. a concerted and ambitious research agenda focused on evaluating whether two specific changes – targeting a lower rate of inflation or a path for the level of prices – could provide significant net benefits to the canadian economy and canadian households. subsequently, the experience of the global financial and economic crisis prompted the bank to add a third item to its research agenda – asking to what extent monetary policy should take account of financial stability considerations. allow me to highlight just some of the initiatives and work undertaken by the bank over the past five years. since 2008, we have had three major conferences for our staff and other researchers to present work on inflation targeting and the monetary policy framework. the most important of these research papers have been published in three special issues of the bank of canada review – winter 2007 – 08, spring 2009 and summer 2010. as well, governing council members have spoken regularly and publicly about the issues. bis central bankers ’ speeches we have been pleased to answer questions before this committee regarding progress to date toward renewing the inflation - control target. and tiff and i are happy to answer more of these questions today, as well of course, questions about the outlook for the canadian economy. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

ben s bernanke : monetary policy modeling - where are we and where should we be going? remarks by mr ben s bernanke, member of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, at the federal reserve board models and monetary policy conference, washington, dc, 27 march 2004. the references for the speech can be found on the board of governors of the federal reserve system ’ s website. * * * our honorees, dale henderson, richard porter, and peter tinsley, have already received much welldeserved praise. i will add only one brief observation. although i am a relative newcomer to the federal reserve, i have already had numerous occasions to be impressed by the research staff here. the board staff has what a management expert might call a terrific corporate culture. they understand that they make crucial contributions to the policymaking process, not only in the realm of monetary policy but in banking, payments, consumer affairs, and other areas, and they bring great pride and professionalism to their work. moreover, they understand the value of sophisticated and subtle economic analysis, which they apply both to day - to - day questions of policy and to more fundamental research questions. a culture like that doesn ’ t just happen ; it requires senior people who lead by example. in their times at the board, dale henderson, dick porter, and peter tinsley, each in his own way, have promoted a culture that combines the best in policy - oriented research with the intellectual rigor and curiosity needed to address questions that go beyond the immediate economic situation. that is an outstanding contribution, one that should be recognized in addition to the many intellectual contributions that each of these scholars has made to the economic literature. the theme of the panel is “ monetary policy modeling : where are we and where should be going? ” forecasting the direction of successful research is inherently very difficult. there is a kind of efficient markets principle at work ; if a promising direction for research were obvious, someone would have already pursued it. so i think the best i can do is highlight three general areas in which much good work has already been done, including research by messrs. henderson, porter, and tinsley, but in which further progress would be enormously helpful to monetary policymaking in practice. the first area is the characterization of good monetary policy in increasingly realistic and complex model environments. henderson, porter, and tinsley have all made significant contributions to macroeconomic modeling at the board. for specificity, i