Expectation Puzzles, Time-varying Risk Premia, and Dynamic Models of the Term Structure

Though linear projections of returns on the slope of the yield curve have contradicted the implications of the traditional expectations theory,' we show that these findings are not puzzling relative to a large class of richer dynamic term structure models. Specifically, we are able to match all of the key empirical findings reported by Fama and Bliss and Campbell and Shiller, among others, within large subclasses of affine and quadratic-Gaussian term structure models. Additionally, we show that certain risk-premium adjusted' projections of changes in yields on the slope of the yield curve recover the coefficients of unity predicted by the models. Key to this matching are parameterizations of the market prices of risk that let the risk factors affect the market prices of risk directly, and not only through the factor volatilities. The risk premiums have a simple form consistent with Fama's findings on the predictability of forward rates, and are shown to also be consistent with interest rate, feedback rules used by a monetary authority in setting monetary policy.

Interpreting Recent Changes in the Credit Spreads of Japanese Banks

This paper examines the recent period of relatively low credit spreads in Japan, with particular emphasis on the marketfs assessments of the credit risks of large Japanese banks implicit in the prices of credit derivatives. We extract the market-price implied likelihood of a credit event in the future, and explore the nature of the default risk premiums underlying recent changes in bank bond and credit derivatives prices. We document substantial increases in the gjump-at- defaulth default risk premiums for the large Japanese banks examined during the early part of 2006. These patterns in risk premiums are related to the recent patterns in market indicators of global event risk, local equity market volatility, and an estimate of the duration of the Bank of Japanfs zero interest rate policy.Default risk premium; Credit default swap; Japanese banks; Zero interest rate policy; Event risk

Efficient Estimation of Linear Asset Pricing Models with Moving-Average Errors

This paper explores in depth the nature of the conditional moment restrictions implied by log-linear intertemporal capital asset pricing models (ICAPMs) and shows that the generalized instrumental variables (GMM) estimators of these models (as typically implemented in practice) are inefficient. The moment conditions in the presence of temporally aggregated consumption are derived for two log-linear ICAPMs. The first is a continuous time model in which agents maximize expected utility. In the context of this model, we show that there are important asymmetries between the implied moment conditions for infinitely and finitely-lived securities. The second model assumes that agents maximize non-expected utility, and leads to a very similar econometric relation for the return on the wealth portfolio. Then we describe the efficiency bound (greatest lower bound for the asymptotic variances) of the CNN estimators of the preference parameters in these models. In addition, we calculate the efficient CNN estimators that attain this bound. Finally, we assess the gains in precision from using this optimal CNN estimator relative to the commonly used inefficient CMN estimators.

A Time Series Analysis of Representative Agent Models of Consumption andLeisure Choice Under Uncertainty

This paper investigates empirically a model of aggregate consumption and leisure decisions in which goods and leisure provide services over time. The implied time non-separability of preferences introduces an endogenous source of dynamics which affects both the co-movements in aggregate compensation and hours worked and the cross-relations between prices and quantities. These cross-relations are examined empirically using post-war monthly U.S. data on quantities, real wages and the real return on the one-month Treasury bill. We find substantial evidence against the overidentifying restrictions. The test results suggest that the orthogonality conditions associated with the representative consumer's intratemporal Euler equation underlie the failure of the model. Additionally, the estimated values of key parameters differ significantly from the values assumed in several studies of real business models. Several possible reasons for these discrepancies are discussed.

Estimation and Evaluation of Conditional Asset Pricing Models

We find that several recently proposed consumption-based models of stock returns, when evaluated using an optimal set of managed portfolios and the associated model-implied conditional moment restrictions, fail to capture key features of risk premiums in equity markets. To arrive at these conclusions, we construct an optimal GMM estimator for models in which the stochastic discount factor (SDF) is a conditionally affine function of a set of priced risk factors. Further, for the (often relevant) case where a researcher is proposing a generalized SDF relative to some null model, we show that there is an optimal choice of managed portfolios to use in testing the null against the proposed alternative.

Regime Shifts in a Dynamic Term Structure Model of U.S. Treasury Bond Yields

This paper develops and empirically implements an arbitrage-free, dynamic term structure model with "priced" factor and regime-shift risks. The risk factors are assumed to follow a discrete-time Gaussian process, and regime shifts are governed by a discrete-time Markov process with state-dependent transition probabilities. This model gives closed-form solutions for zero-coupon bond prices and an analytic representation of the likelihood function for bond yields. Using monthly data on U.S. Treasury zero-coupon bond yields, we document notable differences in the behaviors of the market prices of factor risk across high and low volatility regimes. Additionally, the state-dependence of the regime-switching probabilities is shown to capture an interesting asymmetry in the cyclical behavior of interest rates. The shapes of the term structures of bond yield volatilities are also very different across regimes, with the well-known hump in volatility being largely a low-volatility regime phenomenon

How Sovereign is Sovereign Credit Risk?

We study the nature of sovereign credit risk using an extensive sample of CDS spreads for 26 developed and emerging-market countries. Sovereign credit spreads are surprisingly highly correlated, with just three principal components accounting for more than 50 percent of their variation. Sovereign credit spreads are generally more related to the U.S. stock and high-yield bond markets, global risk premia, and capital flows than they are to their own local economic measures. We find that the excess returns from investing in sovereign credit are largely compensation for bearing global risk, and that there is little or no country-specific credit risk premium. A significant amount of the variation in sovereign credit returns can be forecast using U.S. equity, volatility, and bond market risk premia.

Regime Shifts in a Dynamic Term Structure Model of U.S. Treasury Bond Yields

This paper develops and empirically implements an arbitrage-free, dynamic term structure model with "priced" factor and regime-shift risks. The risk factors are assumed to follow a discrete-time Gaussian process, and regime shifts are governed by a discrete-time Markov process with state-dependent transition probabilities. This model gives closed-form solutions for zero-coupon bond prices and an analytic representation of the likelihood function for bond yields. Using monthly data on U.S. Treasury zero-coupon bond yields, we document notable differences in the behaviors of the market prices of factor risk across high and low volatility regimes. Additionally, the state-dependence of the regime-switching probabilities is shown to capture an interesting asymmetry in the cyclical behavior of interest rates. The shapes of the term structures of bond yield volatilities are also very different across regimes, with the well-known hump in volatility being largely a low-volatility regime phenomenon