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We analyse the term structure of interest rates in a general equilibrium model with incomplete markets, borrowing constraint, and positive net supply of government bonds. Uninsured idiosyncratic shocks generate bond trades, while aggregate shocks cause fluctuations in the trading price of bonds. Long bonds command a "liquidation risk premium" over short bonds, because they may have to be liquidated before maturity following a bad idiosyncratic shock precisely when their resale value is low due to the simultaneous occurrence of a bad aggregate shock. Our framework endogenously generates limited cross-sectional wealth heterogeneity among the agents (despite the presence of uninsured idiosyncratic shocks), which allows us to characterise analytically the shape of the entire yield curve, including the yields on bonds of arbitrarily long maturities. Agents desire to hedge the idiosyncratic risk together with their fear of having to liquidate long bonds at unfavourable terms imply that a greater bond supply raises the level of the yield curve, while an increase in the relative supply of long bonds raises its slope.

This paper presents a simple model of the long-term interest rate. The model represents John Maynard Keynes's conjecture that the central bank's actions influence the long-term interest rate primarily through the short-term interest rate, while allowing for other important factors. It relies on the geometric Brownian motion to formally model Keynes's conjecture. Geometric Brownian motion has been widely used in modeling interest rate dynamics in quantitative finance. However, it has not been used to represent Keynes's conjecture. Empirical studies in support of the Keynesian perspective and the stylized facts on the dynamics of the long-term interest rate on government bonds suggest that interest rate models based on Keynes's conjecture can be advantageous.

For a sample of sixteen OECD countries over the period 1980-2007 we show that, for given debt-GDP ratio, an increase in the maturity of the public debt by one year lowers its long-term interest rate by around 20-30 basis points. This effect is stronger for countries with higher average inflation or debt.

AbstractThis paper investigates the information content of domestic macroeconomic developments for the determination of nominal long‐term interest rates in the G7. We show that when an econometric methodology is followed, which takes into account the stationarity, cointegration, and exogeneity features of the data, well‐specified equations can be estimated, which confirm the importance of fiscal and monetary developments in the determination of long‐term interest rates. The results are contrary to those that one would expect from standard finance theory, which suggests that interest rates are determined by market participants. They reveal that inflation uncertainty and the quality of debt are important factors in each of the countries considered. In addition, there is a high degree of uniformity in the structure of the estimated relationships, suggesting that economic performance is of greater importance than institutional diversity in the determination of long‐term rates.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has maintained an accommodative monetary policy ever since the 2007 recession, and some financial market participants are concerned that long-term interest rates may increase more than should be expected when the Committee starts to tighten. But a look at five historical episodes of monetary policy tightening suggests that such an outcome is more likely when markets are surprised by policy actions or economic developments. Given the Fed's new policy tools, especially its evolution toward more transparent communications, the odds of a surprise are far less likely now.

Mexiko adopted a floating exchange rate regime in December 1994. In this paper the authors pursue an empirical investigation on the effect of the term structure of interest rates on the exchange rate for Mexico. This information could be useful to understand the operation of the Mexican floating exchange rate regime. (DSE/DÜI)

This paper adds to the literature studying how fiscal variables affect long‐term interest rates. Using a sample of sixteen OECD countries over the period 1980–2007, we show that a one‐year increase in the maturity of the public debt lowers the long‐term interest rate by on average 20–30 basis points. This negative effect is found for both static and panel vector autoregressive specifications. Country sample splits suggest that it is present in particular for low‐maturity or high‐inflation countries.