We study the properties of foreign exchange risk premiums that can explain the forward bias puzzle, defined as the tendency of high-interest rate currencies to appreciate rather than depreciate. These risk premiums arise endogenously from the no-arbitrage condition relating the term structure of...

A large literature suggests that standard exchange rate models cannot outperform a random walk forecast and that the forward rate is not an optimal predictor of the spot rate. There is evidence, however, that the term structure of forward premia contains valuable information for forecasting...

This article examines the dynamic relationship between two key US money market interest rates – the federal funds rate and the 3-month Treasury bill rate. Using daily data over the period from 1974-99, we find a long-run relationship between these two rates that is remarkably stable across...

Under the assumption of no arbitrage, exchange rate target-zone credibility is tested by whether domestic interest rates fall within `rate-of-return bands' between the maximum and minimum home-currency rate of return on a foreign investment in the absence of a devaluation. Under the assumption...

In this paper we provide an empirical analysis of the term structure of interest rates using the affine class of term structure models introduced by Duffie and Kan. We estimate these models by combining time-series and cross-section information in a theoretically consistent way. In the...

This paper examines the effects of tax cuts in a multi-country world where both labour supply and capital formation are endogenous and taxes are distortionary. We highlight four channels through which tax cuts affect interest rates and the economy in general: (i) an increase in the supply of...

We study the relationship between the term structure of interest rates and fiscal policy by considering the Italian case. Empirical analysis has been so far rather inconclusive on this important topic. We abscribe such evidence to three problems: identification, regime-switching and maturity...

We show that short and long nominal interest rates are independent monetary policy instruments. The pegging of both helps solving the problem of multiplicity that arises when only short rates are used as the instrument of policy. A peg of the nominal returns on assets of different maturities is...

We propose a new approach to forecasting the term structure of interest rates, which allows to efficiently extract the information contained in a large panel of yields. In particular, we use a large Bayesian Vector Autoregression (BVAR) with an optimal amount of shrinkage towards univariate AR...

We conduct an extensive empirical analysis of VIX derivative valuation models over the 2004-2007 bull market and the subsequent financial crisis. We show that existing models yield large distortions during the crisis because of their restrictive volatility mean reverting assumptions. We propose...