Measuring the ''World'' Real Interest Rate

Over the past couple of decades, and especially since the financial crisis in 2008-09, real interest rates have collapsed. For much of the past two years they have been negative, but they have been trending down for some while. But how far have real rates fallen? This note computes a measure of the "world" real interest rate and, where possible, a measure of the implied future real rate. It also makes public our estimates of the "world" real interest rate so they can be used by other researchers.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at "http://www.nber.org/papers/w19887" TARGET="_blank" www.nber.org