The expectations theory of the term structure: Evidence from inflation forecasts

This paper tests the joint hypothesis of rational expectations and the expectations theory of the term structure using the Livingston survey data on price inflation forecasts. For a variety of sample periods, the paper presents evidence that the data are consistent with the theory. Since inflation forecasts, unlike interest rates, are not linked to specific underlying financial assets, the relationship between longterm and short-term inflation forecasts should not embody risk premia. This paper's findings therefore lend support to the view that a time-varying risk premium is needed to explain the observed term structure of interest rates.     

Forward rates and the expectations theory of the term structure: Tests for the Federal Republic of Germany

The expectations theory of the term structure was tested using data from West German capital and money markets for the period 1975:01–1986:12. If forward rates implicit in the term structure are market expectations of future spot rates, and if term premia are not time-dependent, then forward rates should follow a martingale sequence. This hypothesis was tested with the aid of standard time series techniques (autocorrelation functions, Box-Pierce, unit-roots,F-tests and co-integration). The expectations theory was for the most part rejected, although the martingale property, or equivalently, weak form efficiency, held for the latter part of the test period. The rejection of the simple expectations theory is consistent with the hypothesis of time-varying term premia. The author thanks an anonymous referee and especially Prof. Dr. J. Wolters (Free University of Berlin) for helpful comments and criticism.     

Inference in expectations models of the term structure: A non-parametric approach

Recent research has examined apparent deviations from the expectations theory of the term structure detectable in regression tests, which may be interpreted as efficiency tests. Efficiency is rejected in many studies. Inference is complicated, however, by the non-normality of regression residuals, invalidating standard parametric test procedures. The present paper examines these rejections using robust diagnostic methods and non-parametric tests. We find some evidence against the expectations theory of the term structure in U.S. data, but not in Canadian. We also investigate the possible explanation of a link between forecast error and the yield spread through models of time-variation in the liquidity premium.     

The expectations hypothesis, term premia, and the Canadian term structure of interest rates

In this paper monthly data are used over the period 1960:7 to 1995:12 to examine the determinants of term premia implicit in the Canadian T-bill term structure of interest rates. In sharp contrast to U.S. evidence, the conditional variances of Canadian macroeconomic variables are found to be insignificant predictors of term premia in the Canadian T-bill term structure. The conditional variances of U.S. macroeconomic variables, however, are found to be important determinants of Canadian term premia. JEL Classification: E43, G1
L'hypothese des anticipations, les primes de temps et la structure temporelle des taux d'intérêt canadiens. Ce mémoire utilise des données mensuelles de juillet 1960 à décembre 1995 pour examiner les déterminants des primes de temps implicites dans la structure des taux d'intérêt pour les bons du trésor canadiens. Contrairement à ce que l'on trouve aux Etats-Unis, il semble que les variances conditionnelles des variables macroéconomiques canadiennes ne sont pas des prédicteurs utiles de ces primes. Cependant, il appert que les variances conditonnelles des variables macroéconomiques des Etats-Unis sont des déterminants importants de ces primes.     

An empirical note on Euro market interest rates,domestic interest rates and the expectations theory of the term structure

An empirical analysis of recent monthly data for 8 currencies indicates that the performance of the expectations theory to explain the short term maturity spectrum of Euro interest rates is rather good in most cases and that it is not related to the degree of integration of Euro and domestic markets.     

Scale effects in endogenous growth theory: an error of aggregation not specification

Modern Schumpeterian growth theory focuses on the product line as the main locus of innovation and exploits endogenous product proliferation to sterilize the scale effect. The empirical core of this theory consists of two claims: (i) growth depends on average employment (i.e., employment per product line); (ii) average employment is scale invariant. We show that data on employment, R&D personnel, and the number of establishments in the US for the period 1964–2001 provide strong support for these claims. While employment and the total number of R&D workers increase with no apparent matching change in the long-run trend of productivity growth, employment and R&D employment per establishment exhibit no long-run trend. We also document that the number of establishments, employment and population exhibit a positive trend, while the ratio employment/establishment does not. Finally, we provide results of time series tests consistent with the predictions of these models.     

A theory of self-fulfilling political expectations

In their pursuit of being re-elected, politicians might not choose high-quality policies but just conform to popular wisdom. The larger are the office spoils, and the more precise is an incumbent's knowledge of voter opinion, the more likely that she will resort to such populism. My main result is that the public's trust or distrust in politicians' behavior may be self-fulfilling. When voters assess the quality of an incumbent politician, they will compare her policy choices with their own prior opinion. If voters think that the incumbent was just trying to conform, a failure to do so will be even more damaging for the incumbent's election chances. However, this only increases the incumbent's incentives to conform, which indeed confirm voters' skepticism. Loosely put, a skeptic voter attitude tends to generate conformist politicians, while a trusting attitude tends to generate confident ones.     

Nonstationary term premia and cointegration of the term structure

This paper proposes a model of the term structure with nonstationary term premia which exhibit a factor structure. This explains the common empirical finding of a cointegrating rank smaller than the one predicted by the rational expectations hypothesis of the term structure. An application to German interest rate data yields easily interpretable results.     

The constant preferences assumption as a specification error in demand analysis

Complete demand systems often are estimated under the assumption that preferences are constant. If preferences do change in reality, this leads to a specification error. This note explores some of the implications of such a specification error.     

Regime shifts in the Danish term structure of interest rates

Within a bivariate VAR model allowing for two-state Markov regime switching we test and evaluate the Expectations Theory (ET) of the term structure using Danish 1- and 3-months interest rates covering the period 1976–1997. A regime-shift approach is used in order to account for the change in monetary policy and the 1992–93 exchange rate crises that occured during this period. The basic findings are that these episodes did change the term structure, and, although we do find departures from the ET, several of the implications of the theory are consistent with the data, especially in the later part of the sample. First version received: June 1997/Final version received: March 1998     

Loss aversion and the term structure of interest rates

This article studies how the loss averse behaviour affects the term structure of real interest rates. Since the pro-cyclical conditional expected marginal rate of substitution, implied from the US consumption data, is consistent with the proposition of loss aversion, we incorporate the loss averse behaviour of prospect theory into the consumption-based asset pricing model. Motivated by the similarity between habit formation and the prospect theory utility, habit formation is exploited to determine endogenously the reference point of this behavioural finance utility. The highly curved characteristic of the term structure of real interest rates can thus be captured by the additional consideration of loss aversion. This model also fits the downward sloping volatility of the real yield curve in the data of US Treasury Inflation-Protection Securities (TIPS). Moreover, depending on the effective risk attitude of the representative agent with the loss averse behaviour of prospect theory, our model is capable of generating a normal or an inverted yield curve.     

Risk-aversion and the term structure of real interest rates

The term structure of real interest rates is studied in the context of a consumption-based general-equilibrium model. It is shown that the expectations hypothesis is approximately satisfied for low interest rate volatility. Otherwise the term premia are generally positive.     

Financial integration and the term structure of interest rates

This paper presents a model of the term structure for an open economy. A flexible VAR approach is used to model macroeconomic growth, inflation, short rate and the yield spread. Then the term structure is built given restrictions implied by the no-arbitrage condition. Contrary to previously proposed macrofinance models of the term structure, the model suggested here explicitly accounts for financial and real spillovers between economies. As documented in the paper, foreign macroeconomic factors contain a lot of information about the domestic term structure of yields. Put to data, the model explains the dynamics of yields very well. It provides better out-of-sample forecasting results than the closed economy models. Openness induces more variability in the estimated term premia of yields with shorter maturities.     

Petroleum spreads and the term structure of futures prices

We employ the term structure of gasoline and heating oil prices, proxied by convenience yields, to explain the variation in the spread between the prices of gasoline and crude oil and the prices of heating oil and crude oil. We demonstrate that the marginal convenience yields in the gasoline and heating oil markets explained much of the variation in the spreads between 1986 and 1999. The evidence indicates the importance of a disaggregated treatment of the term structure of prices: the convenience yield is found to explain a substantially higher amount of the variation in the spread when it is decomposed by maturity, even after controls for seasonality and inventory levels are implemented. These findings support the notion that the futures term structure contains information beyond what can be garnered via obvious or easily available proxies of current supply and demand. The findings are also supported in an alternate specification that tests for the origins of information spillover (leadership) between the commodities: it is demonstrated that decomposed convenience yields explain a substantial portion of the volatility spillover from the gasoline and heating oil markets to the crude market.     

Estimation and specification analysis of models of dividend behavior based on censored panel data

Dividends move in discrete jumps. Moreover, some companies pay dividends, others do not. Both these aspects necessitate the use of limited dependent variable models in the analysis of dividend behavior. Models of dividend behavior usually ignore these problems and treat dividends as a continuous variable. The present paper analyzes dividend behavior using panel data on 649 firms for 12 years (1976–1987). The model used is a censored regression model which allows for firm-specific and time effects. It is estimated using the maximum likelihood method under three different error covariance specifications. Based on specification tests, it is argued that it is important to allow for the zero observations, industry effects, and firm-specific and time effects in the estimation of models of dividend behavior.     

The information content of the term structure: Evidence for Germany

This paper studies the usefulness of spreads between interest rates of different maturities as indicators of future inflation and real interest rates in Germany, using monthly data starting in 1967∶1. The central results are twofold. First, the interest rate spreads considered contain considerable information about future changes in inflation, but no information about the time path of real interest rates. Second, the medium-term segment of the yield curve (spreads between 6 and 2 year rates, for instance) appears to be the most informative for future inflation. These results are similar to those obtained by Mishkin (1990b) and Jorion and Mishkin (1991).     

Testing the predictive power of the term structure without data snooping bias

It is well documented that the term structure of interest rates has predictive power for real economic growth. Applying the stepwise superior predictive ability test, we find that superior models contain both a short-term rate and a term spread.     

A decomposition of the predictive content of the term structure for output growth in Canada

The purpose of this study is to identify the underlying economic disturbances that drive the predictive content of the term structure for future output growth and those that may distort its information content. The study uses a structural vector autoregressive (VAR) model of a small and open economy for Canada that takes into account its relationship with financial markets in the USA and that Canada is a relatively large exporter of commodities. The model is used to decompose the sources of the variation of the slope of the yield curve and the correlation between the term spread and output growth. Monetary policy disturbances in both Canada and the USA, as well as short-term interest rates, are found to trigger excessive volatility in short-term rates and the term spread that do not contribute to the predictive content of the term spread for future output growth at horizons relevant for monetary policy analysis. However, innovations in output growth, inflation and other macroeconomic variables do not distort the forecast power of the term spread. Unlike the evidence for the USA, disturbances in nominal long-term yields are found to contribute about the same amount to the predictive content of the term spread as unexpected movements in monetary policy.