This paper examines the stability of the predictive power of the yield spread for future GDP growth. We find that the ability of the spread to predict future GDP growth has weakened since 1984:Q1. Given the decomposition of the yield spread into the expectation component and the term premium...

Spread's predictive ability is reviewed by implementing a number of linear and probit models. We conduct a comparative analysis of the forecasting performance of various specifications by focusing on the last three major US economic slowdowns. The results indicate that although linear models are...