This paper develops a macroeconomic model of the yield curve and uses this to explain the behaviour of the US Treasury market. Unlike previous macro-finance models which assume a homoscedastic error process, I develop a general affine model which allows volatility to be conditioned by interest rates and other macroeconomic variables. Despite the extensive use of stochastic volatility models in mainstream finance papers and the overwhelming evidence of heteroscedasticity in macroeconomic and asset price data this is the first macro-finance model of the bond market with this feature. My preferred empirical specification uses a single conditioning factor and is thus the macro-finance analogue of the EA1 (N) specification of the mainstream finance literature. This model performs well in encompassing tests that lead to a decisive rejection of the standard EA0(N) macro-finance specification. The resulting specification provides a flexible 10-factor explanation of the behaviour of the US yield curve, keying it in to the behaviour of the macroeconomy.
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Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of York in its series Discussion Papers with number
04/16.
Length: Date of creation: Jun 2004 Date of revision:
Jan 2006 Handle: RePEc:yor:yorken:04/16
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Dewachter, H.D.R. & Lyrio, M., 2003.
"Macro factors and the Term Structure of Interest Rates,"
Research Paper
ERS-2003-037-F&A Revision, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus Uni.
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