We show that the difference between the natural rate of interest and the current level of monetary policy stance, which we label Convergence Gap (CG), contains information that is valuable for bond predictability. Adding CG in forecasting regressions of bond excess returns significantly raises...

The purpose of this article is to explain changes in sovereign yields using conventional “rating agency style” measures in comparison to contingent claims valuation-based measures. I will show that – in contrast to most conventional sovereign credit quality measures – contingent claims...

Long term forward rates contain information that greatly improves the precision with which expectations of future short rates can be distinguished from risk premia in the term structure. Indeed, in affine models, the slope of the term structure of risk premia for long maturities is very closely...

Fiscal policy matters for bond risk premia. Empirically, government spending level and volatility predict excess bond returns. Shocks to government spending level and volatility are also priced in the cross-section of bond and stock portfolios. Theoretically, level shocks raise inflation when...

We show that machine learning methods, in particular extreme trees and neural networks (NNs), provide strong statistical evidence in favor of bond return predictability. NN forecasts based on macroeconomic and yield information translate into economic gains that are larger than those obtained...

We study drift and cyclical components in U.S. Treasury bonds. We find that bond yields are drifting because they reflect the drift in monetary policy rates. Empirically, modeling the monetary policy drift using demographics and productivity trends, plus long-term inflation expectations, leads...