We study risk premium in US Treasury bonds. We decompose Treasury yields into inflation expectations and maturity-specific interest rate cycles, which we define as variation in yields orthogonal to expected inflation. The short-maturity cycle captures the real short-rate dynamics. Jointly with...

We decompose conditional volatilities of US Treasury yields into components due to short-rate expectations and term premia. To this end, we propose a novel no-arbitrage model which we estimate with extensive second-moment data. Short-rate expectations become more volatile than premia before...

Robust empirical evidence suggests that a steep slope of the nominal yield curve predicts an increase in the future real activity. We show that the negative of the slope closely traces the variation in the ex-ante real rate. We then argue that the predictive content of the slope for real...

We decompose yields into long-horizon expected inflation and maturity-related cycles to study the predictability of bond excess returns. Cycles capture the risk premium and the business cycle variation of short rate expectations. From cycles, we construct a forecasting factor that explains up to...