We use TVP models and real-time data to describe the evolution of the leading properties of the yield spread for output growth in five European economies and in the US over the last decades and until the third quarter of 2010. We evaluate the predictive performance of benchmark term-structure...

This paper employs a semiparametric procedure to estimate the diffusion process of short-term interest rate. This method is compared in its ability to capture the dynamics of short rate volatility to a class of one-factor diffusion models where the conditional variance is serially correlated and...

The slope of the Treasury yield curve has often been cited as a leading economic indicator, with inversion of the curve being thought of as a harbinger of a recession. In this paper, I consider a number of probit models using the yield curve to forecast recessions. Models that use both the level...

I estimate a dynamic factor from the risk premium of carry trading of bilateral US Dollar against 15 OECD countries and use that factor to augment the macro fundamentals suggested by the Taylor rule, monetary and purchasing power parity models. Meese and Rogoff (1983) show economic models of...

Based on ordered Probit models and twenty years of euro area data, we estimate empirical reaction functions for the ECB's monetary policy and augment them with communication indicators. First, we find that the ECB responded to risks to price stability in line with its primary objective, and that...

Many studies find that yields for government bonds predict real economic activity. Most of these studies use the yield spread, defined as the difference between two yields of specific maturities, to predict output. In this paper, I propose a different approach that makes use of information...

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the yield curve (or alternatively, the term premium) as a predictor of future economic activity. In this paper, we re‐examine the evidence for this predictor, both for the United States, as well as European countries. We believe a...

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the moments of the yield curve (or alternatively, the term spread) as a predictor of future economic activity, defined as either recessions, or industrial production growth. In this paper, we re-examine the evidence for this predictor for the...

This paper analyzes the term deposit sterilizing open market operations conducted by the Eurosystem between May 2010 and June 2014 in the context of the Securities Market Program (SMP). The SMP operations involved outright purchases of government debt securities in the secondary market with a...

This paper investigates the market pricing of subprime mortgage risk on the basis of data for the ABX.HE family of indices, which have become a key barometer of mortgage market conditions during the recent financial crisis. After an introduction into ABX index mechanics and a discussion of...