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The US Economy, the Treasury Bond Market and the Specification of Macro-Finance Models

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  • Peter Spencer

Abstract

This paper addresses questions about the structure of the economy and financial markets raised by recent research on the term structure. The work of Duffee (2012) and Joslin, Preibsch and Singleton (2012) suggests that macroeconomic variables affect risk premia rather than bond yields, which are driven by just three factors as in the traditional model. This is consistent with the observation that the real world macro-dynamics appear to be much richer than the risk neutral dynamics underpinning the term structure. On the other hand, Cochrane and Piazzesi (2005) and (2010) suggest that premia are much simpler, depending upon a single return forecasting factor but not macro variables. This paper suggests that the traditional model is too restrictive, performing poorly at the long end. A model with two return-forecasting factors works remarkably well.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Spencer, 2013. "The US Economy, the Treasury Bond Market and the Specification of Macro-Finance Models," Discussion Papers 13/22, Department of Economics, University of York.
    • Handle: RePEc:yor:yorken:13/22
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter N. Ireland, 2007. "Changes in the Federal Reserve's Inflation Target: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(8), pages 1851-1882, December.
    2. Bikbov, Ruslan & Chernov, Mikhail, 2010. "No-arbitrage macroeconomic determinants of the yield curve," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 159(1), pages 166-182, November.
    3. Dewachter, Hans & Iania, Leonardo, 2011. "An Extended Macro-Finance Model with Financial Factors," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(6), pages 1893-1916, December.
    4. John H. Cochrane & Monika Piazzesi, 2005. "Bond Risk Premia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 138-160, March.
    5. Adrian, Tobias & Crump, Richard K. & Moench, Emanuel, 2013. "Pricing the term structure with linear regressions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 110-138.
    6. Marco Lyrio & Hans Dewachter & Konstantijn Maes, 2006. "A joint model for the term structure of interest rates and the macroeconomy," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 439-462.
    7. Vasicek, Oldrich, 1977. "An equilibrium characterization of the term structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 177-188, November.
    8. Ang, Andrew & Piazzesi, Monika, 2003. "A no-arbitrage vector autoregression of term structure dynamics with macroeconomic and latent variables," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 745-787, May.
    9. Scott Joslin & Anh Le & Kenneth J. Singleton, 2013. "JFEC Invited Paper: Gaussian Macro-Finance Term Structure Models with Lags," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(4), pages 581-609, September.
    10. Gregory R. Duffee, 2002. "Term Premia and Interest Rate Forecasts in Affine Models," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 405-443, February.
    11. Hendry, David F., 1995. "Dynamic Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198283164.
    12. Eric T. Swanson & John C. Williams, 2014. "Measuring the Effect of the Zero Lower Bound on Medium- and Longer-Term Interest Rates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3154-3185, October.
    13. repec:cup:jfinqa:v:46:y:2011:i:06:p:1893-1916_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Refet S. Gürkaynak & Brian Sack & Eric Swanson, 2005. "The Sensitivity of Long-Term Interest Rates to Economic News: Evidence and Implications for Macroeconomic Models," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 425-436, March.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Macro-finance; Kalman augmented VAR; term structure; interest rate expectations; risk premia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics
    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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