Forecasts of US short-term interest rates: A flexible forecast combination approach

This paper develops a flexible approach to combine forecasts of future spot rates with forecasts from time-series models or macroeconomic variables. We find empirical evidence that, accounting for both regimes in interest rate dynamics, and combining forecasts from different models, helps improve the out-of-sample forecasting performance for US short-term rates. Imposing restrictions from the expectations hypothesis on the forecasting model are found to help at long forecasting horizons.     

Evolving macroeconomic perceptions and the term structure of interest rates

We explore the role of evolving beliefs regarding the structure of the macroeconomy in improving our understanding of the term structure of interest rates within the context of a simple macro-finance model. Using quarterly vintages of real-time data and survey forecasts for the United States over the past 40 years, we show that a recursively estimated VAR on real GDP growth, inflation and the nominal short-term interest rate generates predictions that are more consistent with survey forecasts than a benchmark fixed-coefficient counterpart. We then estimate a simple term structure model under the assumption that investor risk attitude is driven by near-term expectations of the three state variables. When we allow for evolving beliefs about the macroeconomy, the resulting term structure model provides a better fit to the cross section of yields than the benchmark model, especially at longer maturities, and exhibits better performance in out-of-sample predictions of future yield movements.     

Monetary policy regimes and the term structure of interest rates

US monetary policy is investigated using a regime-switching no-arbitrage term structure model that relies on inflation, output, and the short interest rate as factors. The model is complemented with a set of assumptions that allow the dynamics of the private sector to be separated from monetary policy. The monetary policy regimes cannot be estimated if the yield curve is ignored during estimation. Counterfactual analysis evaluates importance of regimes in policy and shocks for the great moderation. The low-volatility regime of exogenous shocks plays an important role. Monetary policy contributes by trading off asymmetric responses of output and inflation under different regimes.     

Nonlinear dynamics of gold and the dollar

Notwithstanding the widely held view that gold and the dollar are negatively correlated, we ask when and why gold and the dollar sometimes depart from their typical inverse relationship and go so far as to move in parallel. Using a threshold vector error correction model (VECM), we investigate the nonlinear relationship between gold and the dollar. We find evidence of short run positive correlation between gold and the dollar under extreme market conditions. Our result suggests that the hedging property of gold is influenced by the gold-dollar threshold process.     

Predictions of short-term rates and the expectations hypothesis

This paper emphasizes that traditional tests of the EH are based on two assumptions: the expectations hypothesis (EH) per se and an assumption about the expectations generating process (EGP) for the short-term rate. Arguing that conventional tests of the EH need to assume EGPs that may be significantly at odds with the true EGP, we investigate this possibility by analyzing the out-of-sample predictive performances of several models for predicting interest rates, including a few models which assume that the EH holds in its functional form that relates long- to short-term yields. Using US riskless yield data for a 1970–2016 monthly sample and testing methods that take into account the parameter uncertainty, the null hypothesis of an equal predictive accuracy of each model relative to the random walk alternative is hardly ever rejected at intermediate and long horizons. This confirms that, at least at a practical level, the main difficulty with the EH is represented by the effective prediction of short-term rates. We discuss the relevance of these findings for central banks’ use of forward guidance.     

Reexamining the term structure of interest rates and the interwar demand for money

This paper reexamines whether the term structure of interest rates, rather than merely a single interest rate, should be included in the demand for money of the interwar era. In contrast to earlier work, we use cointegration techniques to model the equilibrium/error correction process, and find that a sufficiently rich dynamic model using a single interest rate has considerable explanatory power. Nevertheless, we conclude that the inclusion of the term structure may help to explain the turbulent monetary dynamics of the Depression era.     

“Global factors,international spillovers,and the term structure of interest rates: New evidence for Asian Countries”

This paper provides new evidence about the role of common global factors exploring the existence of structural breaks in the long-run trend of the term structure and analyzes the spillover effects from the unconventional monetary policies recently implemented by major industrialized countries. For a panel of four Asian economies (Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea), we show that, accounting for the role of global liquidity factors, parameters restrictions associated with the EHTS are not rejected, even after a regime-shift occurring at the end of 2005, thus supporting an extended weak version of the “Liquidity Premium Theory”. We also document relevant discrepancies in the short-run dynamics of long-term interest rates, which are strictly related to some structural differences between these Asian countries in terms of the “impossible trinity” between monetary independence, financial openness and exchange rate stability.     

Near unit roots,cointegration, and the term structure of interest rates

The term structure of interest rates is often modelled as a cointegrated system with the yield spreads forming the cointegrating vectors. Testing whether the yield spreads span the cointegration space is problematic because conventional tests on the cointegration vectors tend to overreject when the largest autoregressive roots deviate from unity, as is likely to be the case with interest rates. A new test that is robust w.r.t. deviations from the exact unit root assumption is developed and applied to monthly US interest rate data from 1952:1–1991:2. Taking into account the regime shift in 1979, the hypothesis of the yield spreads being the cointegrating vectors cannot be rejected using the robust test. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bond risk, bond return volatility, and the term structure of interest rates

This paper explores the time variation in the bond risk, as measured by the covariation of bond returns with stock returns and consumption growth, and in the volatility of bond returns. A robust stylized fact in empirical finance is that the spread between the yields on long- and short-term bonds forecasts future excess returns on bonds at varying horizons positively; in addition, the short-term nominal interest rate forecasts both the stock return volatility and the exchange rate volatility positively. This paper presents evidence that movements in both the short-term nominal interest rate and the yield spread are positively related to changes in the subsequent realized bond risk and bond return volatility. The yield spread appears to proxy for business conditions, while the short rate appears to proxy for inflation and economic uncertainty. A decomposition of bond betas into a real cash flow risk component and a discount rate risk component shows that yield spreads have offsetting effects in each component. A widening yield spread is correlated with a reduced cash-flow (or inflationary) risk for bonds, but it is also correlated with a larger discount rate risk for bonds. The short rate only forecasts the discount rate component of the bond beta.     

Forecasting the US term structure of interest rates using a macroeconomic smooth dynamic factor model

We extend the class of dynamic factor yield curve models in order to include macroeconomic factors. Our work benefits from recent developments in the dynamic factor literature related to the extraction of the common factors from a large panel of macroeconomic series and the estimation of the parameters in the model. We include these factors in a dynamic factor model for the yield curve, in which we model the salient structure of the yield curve by imposing smoothness restrictions on the yield factor loadings via cubic spline functions. We carry out a likelihood-based analysis in which we jointly consider a factor model for the yield curve, a factor model for the macroeconomic series, and their dynamic interactions with the latent dynamic factors. We illustrate the methodology by forecasting the U.S. term structure of interest rates. For this empirical study, we use a monthly time series panel of unsmoothed Fama–Bliss zero yields for treasuries of different maturities between 1970 and 2009, which we combine with a macro panel of 110 series over the same sample period. We show that the relationship between the macroeconomic factors and the yield curve data has an intuitive interpretation, and that there is interdependence between the yield and macroeconomic factors. Finally, we perform an extensive out-of-sample forecasting study. Our main conclusion is that macroeconomic variables can lead to more accurate yield curve forecasts.     

A tale of two yield curves: Modeling the joint term structure of dollar and euro interest rates

Modeling the joint term structure of interest rates in the United States and the European Union, the two largest economies in the world, is extremely important in international finance. In this article, we provide both theoretical and empirical analysis of multi-factor joint affine term structure models (ATSM) for dollar and euro interest rates. In particular, we provide a systematic classification of multi-factor joint ATSM similar to that of Dai and Singleton (2000). A principal component analysis of daily dollar and euro interest rates reveals four factors in the data. We estimate four-factor joint ATSM using the approximate maximum likelihood method of [A?t-Sahalia, 2002] and [A?t-Sahalia, forthcoming] and compare the in-sample and out-of-sample performances of these models using some of the latest nonparametric methods. We find that a new four-factor model with two common and two local factors captures the joint term structure dynamics in the US and the EU reasonably well.     

Procurement mechanisms and the emergence of new governance structures in the CEECs: evidence from the Bulgarian wine industry

During transition, Bulgaria witnessed the dismantling of communist agri-food supply channels and a weakening of contract enforcement mechanisms. Wineries have had to establish grape procurement and purchasing relationships with a more diverse set of growers and intermediaries. In an attempt to overcome the weaknesses of procurement via spot markets, they have sought more interdependent contractual forms that secure greater control over the quality of inputs and minimise the possibility of opportunistic behaviour. The desired option by wineries is complete backward integration but attempts to achieve this have been limited by fragmented land ownership, credit constraints and incomplete property rights.     

What do interest rates reveal about the functioning of real business cycle models?

This paper begins by documenting the extent to which the predictions of standard Real Business Cycle (RBC) models are incompatible with observed movements in real interest rates. The main finding of the paper is that extending the baseline model to include habit persistence in consumption and adjustment costs to capital significantly improves the model's empirical performance. In our evaluation of the model's performance, we take special care of estimating and testing predictions of the model using both moments drawn directly from the data and moments calculated after identifying shocks to the stochastic trend.     

Term structure of interest rates in the Singapore Asian dollar market

This paper investigates empirically the term structure of interest rates in the Singapore Asian Dollar Market. We consider extended versions of the ARCH-M model of Engle, Lilien, and Robins (1987). The extended models permit autocorrelation, skewness and leptokurtosis in the residuals. The robustness of the empirical tests with respect to alternative specifications of the ARCH process is examined. It turns out that there is significant time-varying term premium, and this conclusion is independent of the hypothesized ARCH model.     

The number of securities giving the maximum return in the presence of transaction costs

An essential element of any realistic investment portfolio selection is the consideration of transaction costs. Our purpose, in this paper, is to determine the maximum return and the corresponding number of securities to buy giving such return, whenever practical constraints features related to budget, buy-in thresholds, and transaction costs are taken into consideration. Dealing with the portfolio selection and optimization problem in the point of view of individual investors, we will arrive to get an analytic result, leading to a new and simple alternative solution to heuristic algorithms. Moreover, this result can be considered as another approach to integer optimization.     

Testing the forward volatility unbiasedness hypothesis in exchange rates under long-range dependence

This paper analyses the unbiasedness hypothesis between spot and forward volatility, using both the actual and the continuous path of realised volatility, and focusing on long-memory properties. For this purpose, we use daily realised volatility with jumps for the USD/EUR exchange rate negotiated in the FX market and employ fractional integration and cointegration techniques. Both series have long-range dependence, and so does the error correction term of their long-run relationship. Hence, deviations from equilibrium are highly persistent, and the effects of shocks affecting the long-run relationship dissipate very slowly. While for long-term contracts, there is some empirical evidence that the forward volatility unbiasedness hypothesis does not hold – and, thus, that forward implied volatility is a systematically downward-biased predictor of future spot volatility – for short-term contracts, the evidence is mixed.     

The effect of transaction costs, payment terms and power on the level of raw materials inventories

This paper proposes and tests an explanation for the level of raw materials inventories based on transaction cost economics theory and the role of power in a supply chain. According to this explanation, raw materials inventories are larger the higher a company's transaction costs and the lower its storage-related production and management costs. Factors that affect these costs are the company's vulnerability to opportunism, whether the input becomes more or less costly to store and manage as it moves through the supply chain, payment terms and the company's power in relation to its supplier. This explanation for the level of raw materials inventories was tested on a large sample of customer industries matched to their main supplier industries. Consistent with this theory, the empirical results show that companies hold larger raw materials inventories the more money their suppliers spend on research and development and the less important the customers are to their suppliers. These results are important because they indicate companies must consider a wider range of factors than previously thought necessary when establishing inventory policy.     

The expectations hypothesis and decoupling of short- and long-term US interest rates: A pairwise approach

The link between short-term policy rates and long-term rates elucidate the potential effectiveness of monetary policy. We examine the US term structure of interest rates using a pairwise econometric approach advocated by Pesaran (2007). Our empirical modelling strategy employs a probabilistic test statistic for the expectations hypothesis of the term structure based on the percentage of unit root rejections among all interest rate differentials. We find support for the expectations hypothesis and provide new insights into the nature of interest rate decoupling which are of value to policymakers. The maturity gap associated with interest rate pairs negatively impacts on the probability of stationarity, and also on the speed of adjustment towards long-run equilibrium. We further show that the speed of adjustment has become more sensitive to the maturity gap over time.