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Risk and Policy Shocks on the US Term Structure

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  • Weber, Enzo
  • Wolters, Jürgen

Abstract

We document two stylised facts of US short- and long-term interest rate data incompatible with the pure expectations hypothesis: Relatively slow adjustment to long-run relations and low contemporaneous correlation. We construct a small structural model which features three types of randomness: While a persistent monetary policy shock implies immediate identical reactions through the term structure, both a transitory policy shock and an autocorrelated risk premium allow for the sustained decoupling observed in the data. Indeed, we find important impacts and persistence of risk premia and a decomposition of policy shocks judging a larger part as transitory the longer the investment horizon.

Suggested Citation

  • Weber, Enzo & Wolters, Jürgen, 2010. "Risk and Policy Shocks on the US Term Structure," University of Regensburg Working Papers in Business, Economics and Management Information Systems 438, University of Regensburg, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bay:rdwiwi:13579
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    Cited by:

    1. Huiqing Li & Yang Su, 2021. "The nonlinear causal relationship between short‐ and long‐term interest rates: An empirical assessment of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 332-355, December.
    2. Soloschenko, Max & Weber, Enzo, 2014. "Capturing the Interaction of Trend, Cycle, Expectations and Risk Premia in the US Term Structure," University of Regensburg Working Papers in Business, Economics and Management Information Systems 475, University of Regensburg, Department of Economics.
    3. Holmes, Mark J. & Otero, Jesús & Panagiotidis, Theodore, 2015. "The expectations hypothesis and decoupling of short- and long-term US interest rates: A pairwise approach," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 301-313.
    4. Vides, José Carlos & Golpe, Antonio A. & Iglesias, Jesús, 2020. "The EHTS and the persistence in the spread reconsidered. A fractional cointegration approach," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 124-137.
    5. Vides, José Carlos & Golpe, Antonio A. & Iglesias, Jesús, 2021. "The impact of the term spread in US monetary policy from 1870 to 2013," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 230-251.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Expectations Hypothesis; Risk Premium; Policy Reaction Function; Persistence; Transitory Shocks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models

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