The expectation hypothesis of the term structure of very short-term rates: Statistical tests and economic value

This paper reexamines the validity of the expectation hypothesis (EH) of the term structure of US repo rates ranging in maturity from overnight to 3 months. We extend the work of Longstaff [2000b. The term structure of very short term rates: new evidence for the expectations hypothesis. Journal of Financial Economics 58, 397–415] in two directions: (1) we implement statistical tests designed to increase test power in this context; (2) more important, we assess the economic value of departures from the EH based on criteria of profitability and economic significance in the context of a simple trading strategy. The EH is rejected throughout the term structure examined on the basis of the statistical tests. However, the results of our economic analysis are favorable to the EH, suggesting that the statistical rejections of the EH in the repo market are economically insignificant.     

The expectations hypothesis: New hope or illusory support?

Recent studies of the expectations hypothesis of the term structure (EHTS) find evidence in favor of the EHTS using post 1980s US data. This has been attributed to the relative macro stability of this period and greater market efficiency. Using a panel of forecasts for 3-month interest rates for ten countries we test separately for EHTS and rational expectations. Assuming rational expectations holds we find support for the EHTS is illusory due to an off-setting time-varying term premia and non-rational expectations. Previous forecast-based studies suggest biased expectations tend to reinforce the effect of a time varying term premium. This change can be understood in the context of Fama’s (2006) argument that markets tend to underestimate future spot rates during periods of long-run increases and overestimate during declines.     

The information content of Eonia swap rates before and during the financial crisis

Before August 2007, implied forward rates in the overnight interest swap rates closely reflected market expectations about the future path of the Eonia, and therefore, about the future course of the ECB’s monetary policy stance. Nevertheless, this link was weakened considerably during the most acute episode of the financial crisis. Using the expectations hypothesis of the term structure as a benchmark model for the determination of the overnight interest swap rates, we find that after May 2010 the monetary transmission mechanism was partially restored when the ECB implemented various ‘unconventional measures’ in response to the financial crisis. On the contrary, liquidity and credit risks are still present in unsecured deposit markets, distorting the pricing and transmission of the ECB monetary policy stance along the Euribor rates. These results should be of interest for regulators, financial institutions, and researchers in European money markets.     

THE EXPECTATIONS HYPOTHESIS OF THE TERM STRUCTURE IN EUROCURRENCY MARKETS

This paper uses daily eurocurrency deposit rates for six currencies to extend previous research on the expectations hypothesis of the term structure. The reported results confirm earlier findings that the behavior of long term interest rates is perverse. For example, it is shown that in the case of five-year eurocurrency deposits denominated in US dollars, German marks and Swiss francs, the coefficient relating the excess holding period return to the yield spread between long and short term securities exceeds one, implying that long term rates tend to move in a direction opposite to the prediction of the expectations hypothesis. This study also employs a variety of techniques to examine the temporal stability of the coefficient in both the long and short maturity regressions used in testing the expectations hypothesis. While we do find instability, the nature of the parameter variation is markedly different from that found in foreign exchange markets when similar tests are employed.     

Correlated interest rate risk and funding strategies for nonfinancial firms

This paper considers appropriate funding strategies for nonfinancial firms when operating cash flows are correlated with interest rates. An example expression is provided for the optimal funding position when the firm has a two-period investment horizon. The conclusion is that matching will be the best strategy if the unbiased expectations hypothesis of the term structure holds and operating cash flows are uncorrelated with interest rates. Since the optimal funding position will be the minimum-risk one if the expectations hypothesis holds, the properties of the minimum-risk funding strategy are also investigated. The primary result is that maturity matching will not necessarily be the optimal funding strategy even when, on average, the cost of long- and short-term funds is the same. Finally, some empirical estimates of minimum risk funding positions for nonfinancial firms are provided using data from the Quarterly CompuStat files. The data indicate that changes in corporate operating earnings are, on average, significantly positively correlated with changes in short-term interest rates, but that there is substantial cross-sectional variation across companies in our sample.     

Beyond segmentation: The case of China’s repo markets

This paper explores the reasons behind the discrepancy between interest rates in China’s two repurchase agreement (repo) markets, the interbank repo market and the exchange-traded repo market. The repo rates in the exchange market are at times, significantly higher than those in the interbank market, especially in the first three years of the 2000–2005 sample period. While market segmentation clearly hinders arbitrage, the causes of the repo rate discrepancy are related to the alternative investment opportunities available to market participants and to the volatility differences in the repo rates.     

Currency futures-spot basis and risk premium

This paper explores the usefulness of currency futures-spot basis in predicting spot rate changes and currency futures returns. We conjecture that the currency risk premium may be an important component of the basis for long-maturity futures contracts, but may not be so for short-maturities. Thus, the basis of long-maturity contracts cannot predict the spot rate changes between now and maturity, rejecting uncovered interest rate parity (UIP), but can predict currency futures returns, which are solely determined by the risk premium. Conversely, the basis of the short-maturity contracts can predict the spot rate changes between now and maturity, validating the UIP, but cannot predict currency futures returns. Empirical tests support these conjectures for the Japanese, British, Swiss, and German currencies over the last two decades. The results are also consistent with Longstaff [Longstaff, F., 2000. The term structure of very short-term rates: new evidence for the Expectation Hypothesis. Journal of Financial Economics 58, 397–415], who shows that the Expectations Hypothesis holds at the very short end of the term structure of interest rates.     

基于我国国债回购市场的利率预期理论检验

本文在给出利率期限结构预期假说的定义及其推论的基础上，利用单位根和协整检验方法对上交所国债回购市场的利率数据进行了检验，结果表明国债回购利率序列均为一阶单整，由各个国债回购利率所构成的利率系统仅由一个共同的随机趋势驱动，因此得出利率预期假说在我国国债回购市场是有效的结论。本文利用向量误差修正模型对各个国债回购利率的估计结果进一步验证了这一点。     

The realized forward term premium in the repo market

Repurchase agreements for general-collateral government debt measure the short-term cost of riskless borrowing, thus avoiding issues relating to specialness of Treasury offerings or irregular term-to-maturity in the Treasury bill market. The spread between reverse and repo rates has previously been ignored by researchers who find that the pure expectation hypothesis either holds at this extremely short end of the term structure or that observed deviations from the expectations hypothesis are not economically significant. This paper shows that the time-varying realized forward premium at the short-end of the yield curve is consistently positive when accounting for the spread between repurchase and reverse repurchase agreement rates.     

Asymmetric Mean Reversion in European Interest Rates: A Two-factor Model

Abstract

This paper tests for asymmetric mean reversion in European short-term interest rates using a combination of the interest rate models introduced by Longstaff and Schwartz (Longstaff, F.A., Schwarts, E.S. (1992) Interest rate volatility and the ferm structure: A two factor general equilibrium model, Journal of Finance, 48, pp. 1259–1282.) and Bali (Bali, T. (2000) Testing the empirical performance of stochastic volatility models of the short-term interest rates, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 35, pp. 191–215.). Using weekly rates for France, Germany and the United Kingdom, it is found that short-term rates follow in all instances asymmetric mean reverting processes. Specifically, interest rates exhibit non-stationary behavior following rate increases, but they are strongly mean reverting following rate decreases. The mean reverting component is statistically and economically stronger thus offsetting non-stationarity. Volatility depends on past innovations past volatility and the level of interest rates. With respect to past innovations volatility is asymmetric rising more in response to positive innovations. This is exactly opposite to the asymmetry found in stock returns.     

公开市场操作与利率期限结构行为——基于混频数据信息的研究视角

在混频数据信息环境中,精准识别公开市场操作(央行政策利率)和国债收益率曲线(基准利率体系)之间的关联机制至关重要,其影响了货币政策期限结构传导的有效性。本文在混频Nelson-Siegel(N-S)利率期限结构模型框架下,引入央行政策利率,揭示公开市场操作与利率期限结构(水平、斜率、曲度)因子之间的作用机制。实证结果表明:混频数据信息条件下,引入的公开市场操作信息显著改进国债收益率曲线的拟合效果;斜率因子冲击对公开市场操作具有显著的正向影响,而利率期限结构因子对政策调控的反应不敏感。进一步研究表明,2015年以来,公开市场操作对斜率因子的影响逐渐扩大,政策利率向国债收益率曲线的传导效率得到显著提高,我国现代货币政策框架日益健全。     

New Hope for the Expectations Hypothesis of the Term Structure of Interest Rates

Survey data on interest rate expectations permit separate testing of the two alternative hypotheses in traditional term structure tests: that the expectations hypothesis fails, and that expected future interest rates are ex post inefficient forecasts. We find that the source of the spread's poor predictions of future interest rates varies with maturity. At short maturities the expectations hypothesis fails. At long maturities, however, changes in the yield curve reflect changes in expected future rates one-for-one, an implication of the expectations hypothesis. This result confirms earlier findings that long rates underreact to short rates, but now it cannot be attributed to term premia.     

Bidding behavior in the longer term refinancing operations of the European Central Bank: Evidence from a panel sample selection model

This paper analyzes individual bidding data of the longer term refinancing operations (LTROs) of the European Central Bank. We investigate how banks’ bidding behavior is related to a series of exogenous variables including collateral costs, interest rate expectations, market volatility and to individual bank characteristics like country of origin, size, and experience. A specific feature of these auctions is that the number and composition of bidders varies over time. Therefore, we estimate panel sample selection models to control for a bank’s endogenous participation decision. We find that bidding strategies depend on the banks’ attributes. Yet, different bidding behavior generally does not translate into differences concerning bidder success. There is evidence for the winner’s curse effect in LTROs indicating a common value component in banks’ demand for longer term refinancing.     

Time-variation in term premia: International survey-based evidence

Using a large, previously unexplored data set of survey-based interest rate forecasts that covers a broad range of countries, this paper re-examines the expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rates. We find that survey-based interest rate forecasts outperform not only a random walk forecast, but also outperform forecasts from forward rates. When using these superior survey-based forecasts in a modified expectations hypothesis test, the expectations hypothesis is rejected for fewer countries, at lower significance levels, and has greater explanatory power than when using a traditional forward rates-based test. We furthermore document strong time-variation in the term premia, which is an important reason why the traditional expectations hypothesis test is rejected so frequently. This time-variation seems to arise from the changing attitudes towards risk among market participants and as a compensation for the change in liquidity in the term structure. Finally, we find that generalizing findings from earlier U.S. studies to other countries may lead to bias in the true economic relationships in these countries.     

The term structure of CD rates and monetary policy transmission

The paper investigates the term structure of CD rates and its relationship with the federal funds rate or monetary policy. The term structure derived in this paper is governed primarily by the federal funds rate and secondarily by banks’ income smoothing behavior. It is consistent with the estimation results and differs significantly from the standard term structure of interest rates. The downturn phase of business cycles appears to be accompanied by more aggressive income smoothing by banks (compared with the upturn phase) due to their pessimistic expectations of future profits. The compositional shift in banks’ liabilities during the downturn phase away from CDs toward transaction deposits may pose a greater withdrawal risk for banks.     

NEW EVIDENCE CONCERNING THE EXPECTATIONS THEORY FOR THE SHORT END OF THE MATURITY SPECTRUM

This paper re-examines the evidence rejecting the expectations theory of the term structure. Weekly, monthly, and quarterly data on three- and six-month interest rates are employed for five subperiods—1910–1914, 1919–1933, 1934–1959, 1959–1978, and 1979–1989. Econometric techniques are used to correct standard errors for overlapping data and for heteroscedasticity. Findings indicate that the weekly and monthly data are consistent with a weak form of the expectations hypothesis in which the yield curve has substantial predictive power for short rates for each subperiod except 1934–1959 and 1979–1989. Results for the period before the founding of the Federal Reserve indicate that a strong version of the expectations hypothesis cannot be rejected in which the joint hypothesis of rational expectations and expectations theory is hypothesized. The use of cointegration tests and an error-correction model framework to determine whether short and long rates have a common stochastic trend indicates that long and short rates are cointegrated.     

THE INFORMATION CONTENT AND USEFULNESS OF THE TERM STRUCTURE OF THE NEW ZEALAND BANK BILL MARKET

This paper applies the rationality concept and expectations hypothesis to test the information efficiency of the term structure of the New Zealand bank bill market. Weekly data is collected from June 1986 to November 1988. The sample period is partitioned into two subperiods by the sharemarket crash in October 1987. The empirical results suggest the presence of a time varying risk premium. This is reflected by the significantly positive volatility measure in the first subperiod and the significant interest rate level variable in both subperiods. The forecast errors correlate significantly with the growth in money supply and overseas interest rate variables. Factors other than market information inefficiency could be responsible for the significant correlation; namely the impact of the sharemarket crash on market perceptions about inflation expectations and the non-simultaneous data problem in calculating the differential costs of borrowing. Despite the rejection of the joint hypothesis, forward rates are found to have information about future spot rates beyond that contained in past spot rates, and are able to predict interest rates at least 30 days ahead.     

Taylor rules and the term structure

The expectations model of the term structure has been subjected to numerous empirical tests and almost invariably rejected, with the failure generally attributed to systematic expectations errors or to shifts in risk premia. Rules for monetary policy designed along the lines of Taylor [1993. Discretion versus policy rules in practice. Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 39, 195-214] specify that the central bank adjusts short-term yields in response to deviations of inflation and output gaps from target level. Such rules give a good empirical account of the behavior of the short-term interest rate. Combining the Taylor rule and expectations theory, it is possible to generate—along lines pioneered by Campbell and Shiller [1987. Cointegration and tests of present value models. Journal of Political Economy 95, 1062-1088]—a series of theoretical long-term interest rates. When such theoretical rates are calculated for the US over 1980-2004, considerable support for the expectations theory emerges.     

The information in the Mexican term structure of interest rates: capital market implications

This paper employs the term structure approach to examine Mexican security markets during the recent period of political and economic turmoil. We investigate the characteristics of these markets and the forecast applicability of the pure expectations hypothesis to interest rates in Mexico. We find that both forward rates and spot rate spreads are found to have significant forecasting ability for future spot rates for Mexico. Both forecasting approaches suggest greater predictive ability during the period of higher interest rates and general economic volatility (1995–1996) than the more stable economic environment of the early 1990s (1991–1994).     

Monetary policy transmission in vector autoregressions: A new approach using central bank communication

In this paper, we study the role played by central bank communication in monetary policy transmission. We employ the Swiss Economic Institute’s Monetary Policy Communicator to measure the future stance of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy. Our results indicate, first, that communication has an influence on inflation (expectations) similar to that of actual target rate changes. Communication also plays a noticeable role in the transmission of monetary policy to output. Consequently, future work on monetary policy transmission should incorporate both a short-term interest rate and a communication indicator. A second finding is that the monetary policy transmission mechanism changed during the financial crisis as the overall effect of monetary policy on (expected) inflation and output is weaker and of shorter duration during this period compared to the overall sample period.