Further evidence on the rationality of interest rate expectations

This paper extends the limited work on interest rate expectations to a previously unexploited data set that covers a broad range of EMS and non-EMS foreign currency deposits. We corroborate the earlier finding in the literature that interest rate forecasts are not rational and that agents do not use all available information in an efficient manner; this finding applies to the post-1990 period, thus questioning the assertion of Frankel and Froot [Frankel, J.F., Froot, K.A., 1987a. Using survey data to test standard propositions regarding exchange rate expectations. American Economic Review 77, 151] that “the nature of the rejection of rational expectations strongly depends on the sample period”. Although forecast errors on EMS rates are smaller and less volatile than errors on non-EMS rates, expectations on EMS rates are nevertheless biased.     

A comparison of the information in the LIBOR and CMT term structures of interest rates

We investigate the information contained in the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and the U.S. Constant Maturity Treasury (CMT) term structure of interest rates and report three novel findings. First, we document that the information contained in term structures are significantly different from one another. Second, we provide evidence of a significant change in the nature of this difference as the financial crisis began. Third, we find that the significant changes in the information content of CMT and LIBOR are consistent with significant shocks to credit default swap rates and tenor swap rates.     

Time-varying term premium in T-bill futures rate and the expectations hypothesis

This paper examines time-varying term premium in the T-bill futures rate to determine its significance for the expectations hypothesis (EH). Similar to previous studies on the T-bill forward rates, our data reject the joint hypothesis of the EH and the rational expectations hypothesis (RE). Under the assumption of zero rational expectational error, we find a substantial variation of term premium in the futures rate over time. Furthermore, the lower bound of the expected term premium variance is significantly positive when the rational expectational error is allowed to be nonzero. These findings are inconsistent with the EH. In addition, a relatively high ratio of the lower bound of the expected term premium variance to the prediction error variance implies that the poor predictive power of the futures rate should not be attributed mainly to the market's rational expectational errors.     

财政政策与利率期限结构:一个经验研究

本文实证研究了我国财政政策对利率期限结构的影响特征。研究结果表明,财政政策与利率期限结构之间具有显著的双向Granger影响关系;财政政策冲击会引起利差变大,利差冲击则会引起财政支出增长率的提高;财政政策对利率期限结构的影响具有明显的时变性特征,影响强度逐渐减弱,并且伴随周期性变动特点;同时这种影响具有明显的非对称性,并且这种非对称性会使利差的波动性减小。因此,本文建议应着重分析利率期限结构中的政策信息,充分利用其政策应用价值。     

公债的利率期限结构与成本管理

在理论上公债期限与公债利率是密切相关的,但是,由于流动性偏好理论的假设前提(有效市场假设)与现实不符,致使"公债期限越短、利息成本越低"的观点在实践中不一定成立.研究表明,只有政府在预测未来债券利率走势方面具有比市场更为优势的地位,它才能够通过期限选择降低债务成本.我国目前正满足这一要求,因而通过期限管理降低债务成本是完全可能的.     

The information in the term structure of German interest rates

This paper tests the Expectations Hypothesis (EH) of the term structure of interest rates using new data for Germany. The German term structure appears to forecast future short-term interest rates surprisingly well, compared with previous studies with US data, while it has lower predictive power for long-term interest rates. However, the direction suggested by the coefficient estimates is consistent with that implied by the EH, that is when the term spread widens, long rates increase. The use of instrumental variables to deal with possible measurement errors in the data significantly improves regressions for the long rates. Moreover, re-estimation with proxy variables to account for the possibility of time-varying term premia confirms that the evolution of both short and long rates corresponds to the predictions of the EH and that most of the information is in the term spread. These results are important as they suggest that monetary policy in Germany could be guided by the slope of the term structure.     

International interest rates and US monetary policy announcements: Evidence from Hong Kong and Singapore

This paper investigates the responses of market interest rates to US monetary policy announcements for the US and two emerging economies, Hong Kong and Singapore which are similar on many respects but have experienced opposite exchange rate regimes in the last twenty years. Our results, based on market expectations extracted from federal fund futures rates, document that FOMC announcements significantly affect the term structure of interest rate in the US and both Asian countries. Further, international interest rate differentials around FOMC meeting dates tend to be negative for short maturities with the impact gradually dissipating as bond maturity increases. Finally, for the case of Singapore, we find that domestic interest rates react to both external and domestic monetary policy announcements with a magnitude that is larger over the full bond maturity spectrum for domestic announcements. These results are robust to time-varying futures risk premia and alternative measures of interest rates expectations.     

Can interest rate factors explain exchange rate fluctuations?

The level, slope, and curvature of the yield curve reflect time variation in investors’ risk premia and are known predictors of excess bond returns and economic activity. In this paper, I develop a term structure model under complete markets and no arbitrage to relate these interest rate factors to exchange rate fluctuations. The Gaussian properties of the stochastic discount factors imply non-linearities in exchange rate risk premia that are shown to account for up to half of the in-sample variation in one-year currency returns for different country pairs during the 1980s–2015 period. I find that interest rate factors help explain exchange rate fluctuations in and out of sample, particularly at longer horizons, and yield profitable currency portfolios relative to standard carry trade strategies.     

Bond risk premia and realized jump risk

We find that augmenting a regression of excess bond returns on the term structure of forward rates with an estimate of the mean realized jump size almost doubles the R² of the forecasting regression. The return predictability from augmenting with the jump mean easily dominates that offered by augmenting with options-implied volatility and realized volatility from high-frequency data. In out-of-sample forecasting exercises, inclusion of the jump mean can reduce the root mean square prediction error by up to 40%. The incremental return predictability captured by the realized jump mean largely accounts for the countercyclical movements in bond risk premia. This result is consistent with the setting of an incomplete market in which the conditional distribution of excess bond returns is affected by a jump risk factor that does not lie in the span of the term structure of yields.     

Monetary policy,bond risk premia,and the economy

Within an affine model of the term structure of interest rates, where bond yields get driven by observable and unobservable macroeconomic factors, parameter restrictions help identify the effects of monetary policy and other structural disturbances on output, inflation, and interest rates and decompose movements in long-term rates into terms attributable to changing expected future short rates versus risk premia. When estimated, the model highlights a broad range of channels through which monetary policy affects risk premia and the economy, risk premia affect monetary policy and the economy, and the economy affects monetary policy and risk premia.     

Riding the swaption curve

We conduct an empirical analysis of the term structure in the volatility risk premium in the fixed income market by constructing long-short combinations of two at-the-money straddles for the four major swaption markets (USD, JPY, EUR and GBP). Our findings are consistent with a concave, upward-sloping maturity structure for all markets, with the largest negative premium for the shortest term maturity. The fact that both delta–vega and delta–gamma neutral straddle combinations earn positive returns that seem uncorrelated suggests that the term structure is affected by both jump risk and volatility risk. The results seem robust for macroeconomic announcements and the specific model choice to estimate the risk exposures for hedging.     

New No-arbitrage Conditions and the Term Structure of Interest Rate Futures

Interest rate futures are basic securities and at the same time highly liquid traded objects. Despite this observation, most models of the term structure of interest rate assume forward rates as primary elements. The processes of futures prices are therefore endogenously determined in these models. In addition, in these models hedging strategies are based on forward and/or spot contracts and only to a limited extent on futures contracts. Inspired by the market model approach of forward rates by Miltersen, Sandmann, and Sondermann (J Finance 52(1); 409–430, 1997), the starting point of this paper is a model of futures prices. Using, as the input to the model, the prices of futures on interest related assets new no-arbitrage restrictions on the volatility structure are derived. Moreover, these restrictions turn out to prevent an application of a market model based on futures prices.