This paper studies the term premium in a general equilibrium model with a financial constraint and central bank asset purchases. Structural estimates of the term premium match past empirical measures. Term premium dynamics are policy dependent, with Federal Reserve quantitative easing programs...

How much do term premiums matter for explaining the dynamics of the term structure of interest rates? A lot. We characterize the expected path of nominal and real short-rates as well as inflation using the universe of U.S. surveys of professional forecasters covering more than 500 survey-horizon...

Why is an inverted yield-curve slope such a powerful predictor of future recessions? We show that a decomposition of the yield curve slope into its expectations and risk premia components helps disentangle the channels that connect fluctuations in Treasury rates and the future state of the...

We document an inverse relation between stock-bond correlations and correlations of growth and inflation. We find that rising inflation uncertainty lowers stock prices but can either lower or raise nominal bond prices depending on whether inflation is counter- or procyclical. We show that the...

A safe asset's real value is insulated from shocks, including declines in GDP from rare macroeconomic disasters. However, in a Lucas-tree world, the aggregate risk is given by the process for GDP and cannot be altered by the creation of safe assets. Therefore, in the equilibrium of a...

The typical increase of the corporate bond-to-bank ratio during downturns is known to mitigate business cycle recessions. In the three longest and deepest post-war U.S. recessions this ratio didn't increase from their outsets. In this paper we focus on the timing of the corporate bank-to-bond...

This contribution focuses on a recent proposal put forward by the European Systemic Risk Board to create a “safe asset” for the eurozone based on a repackaging of the risks of sovereign bonds, in the hope of stabilising an otherwise unstable system of sovereign bond markets. In the present...

The financial crisis saw a large premium paid for Treasury notes over bonds, reaching six percent of face value. We relate this premium to the underlying sources of liquidity supply and demand. On the supply side, we find that arbitrageurs faced low direct costs but high frictions, and that the...