For years, perhaps even decades, Japan’s economy has struggled with low growth and low inflation. A year ago, new policies were put into place to turn around the economy. Although there are similarities between Japan’s experience and that of other developed countries (including the U.S.),...

This paper provides a new framework to study the term structure of interest rate spreads and the maturity composition of sovereign bonds. As observed in the literature, sovereign interest rate spreads increase during crises, with short term interest rate spreads rising more than long term...

Currently U.S. firms hold record amounts of cash. The authors explore cross-sectional variation in cash holdings of U.S. publicly traded firms to shed light on the reasons for this recent trend. First, they identify factors that correlate with cash holdings and then examine the evolution of...

U.S. corporations are holding record-high amounts of cash. One reason has to do with taxes—both the uncertainty about future taxes and the reality of today’s tax rules. The second reason has to do with the rise of research and development; because of its uncertain nature, this sort of work...