THE TERM STRUCTURE OF INTEREST RATES AS A COINTEGRATED SYSTEM: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE EUROCURRENCY MARKET

In this paper I examine the term structure of Eurocurrency interest rates from six countries (with maturities of one, two, three, and six months) using unit root tests and cointegration tests that are robust to departures from independent and identically distributed errors. The main conclusions are: (1) Eurocurrency interest rates have one (and only one) unit root when viewed individually, and (2) for each of the countries examined, Eurocurrency interest rates are cointegrated—with one equilibrium relationship—when viewed jointly. These conclusions are consistent with the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis and suggest that in efficient markets arbitrage generally prevents rates on different maturities of a given asset from drifting too far for an extended period.     

THE TERM PREMIA RELATIONSHIP IMPLICIT IN THE TERM STRUCTURE OF TREASURY BILLS

This paper considers a single coefficient representation of the term premia relationship that appears in treasury bill yield curves. Term premia are defined as positive or negative maturity-dependent differentials versus the instantaneous nominal spot rate. The term premia function is developed in the context of the Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross [ 3 ] Risk-Averse Preferred Habitat Model and proxies for the degree of risk aversion exhibited by the universe of treasury bill investors at a point in time. Empirical results indicate that term premia are influenced by a set of macroeconomic variables in the expected manner.     

A VARIANCE DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS OF THE INFORMATION IN THE TERM STRUCTURE

Based on a market efficiency assumption, we use variance decomposition analysis to separate information in the term structure on expected future spot rates from information on time-varying term premia and to examine the market's ability to forecast both future rate changes and excess returns on long versus short securities. We find that fluctuations in the slope of the yield curve are due more to changing term premia than to fluctuations in expected future spot rates and that the market correctly predicts about 40 percent of the month-to-month changes in spot rates, a considerably higher percentage than that found by previous studies.     

PREDICTIVE POWER OF THE TERM STRUCTURE IN AUSTRALIA IN THE LATE 1980'S: A NOTE

The Market Expectations Theory of the Term Structure of Interest Rates is tested using Wednesday yields on 13 week and 26 week treasury notes and 90 and 180 day bank accepted bills for the period 3 December 1986 to 13 March 1991 obtained from the Reserve Bank of Australia. In ordinary least squares regression based tests the Market Expectations Theory of the Term Structure of Interest Rates is accepted for bank accepted bills but rejected for treasury notes. Augmented Dickey Fuller unit root tests provide evidence of non-stationarity in the variables; a possibility often ignored in Australian studies. Although the unit root tests are generally consistent with the existence of one unit root, residual based cointegration tests between the forward rate and spot rate are not consistent with cointegration. This suggests that the prior expectations theory results may be a result of spurious regression. Perhaps a more complex model is required, coupled with tests which take account of non-stationary time series.     

Financial Economists' Roundtable Statement on THE STRUCTURE OF SECURITIES MARKETS

Market practitioners, regulators, and economists are now debating the merits of a national market system—a single, fully integrated securities market that would be coordinated by a central computer and mandated by the SEC. This brief statement, signed by 29 distinguished financial economists, argues that such a system is a badidea. The multiplicity of U.S. markets is a sign of innovation and vibrant competition, not a problem that requires regulatory intervention. As a variety of markets with different technologies and trading procedures vie for somewhat different groups of customers with different needs, the result is competing market centers—registered exchanges (such as NYSE and AMEX) with designated specialists; NASDAQ with competing dealers; third market dealers in listed securities; and alternative trading systems (regulated as brokers) serving institutional investors or providing on-line trading to individual investors. Moreover, the fact that the different U.S. markets are linked in various ways and degrees—for example, by information and by private order routing systems of brokers and markets—should caution us against viewing market "fragmentation" as a public policy problem in need of a solution     

THE SLOPE OF THE TERM STRUCTURE OF CREDIT SPREADS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

In this article we analyze the slope of the term structure of credit spreads. We investigate the explanatory role of interest rate, market, and idiosyncratic equity variables that the recent empirical literature highlights as important determinants of credit spread levels. This study extends the analysis and assesses its effect on credit slopes for a sample of corporate bonds. We find that these factors affect credit spreads at short and long maturities in a significantly different way. A closer inspection of the credit spread slope also reveals that it is a useful indicator of the direction of changes in future short‐term credit spreads. This evidence has important implications for the trading and risk management of portfolios of bonds with different maturities.