Monetary authorities in the U.S. and U.K. commenced special program purchases of longer-term government bonds in March 2009. One of the purposes of the programs was to influence the prices of assets acquired, that is, to lower middle- and long-term interest rates. The U.K. program played a role...

We show that government spending does play a role in shaping the yield curve which has important consequences for the cost of private and government financing. We combine government spending shock identification strategies from the fiscal macro literature with recent advancements in no-arbitrage...