Multiple Equilibria and the Credibility of the Brazilian "Crawling Peg", 1995-1998.

This paper studies the relationship between the probability of devaluation of the Brazilian real and the fundamentals of the economy for the period 1995-1998. We use a model of a fixed exchange rate system that allows for multiple equilibria and, therefore, makes possible the identification of self-fulfilling speculation. The devaluation probability is computed using the "drift adjustment method". The model performs satisfactorily in tracking monthly devaluation expectations and presents some important advantages over a simple linear regression of macroeconomic variables on the devaluation probability. We do not find evidence that self-fulfilling speculation was at work in the period preceding the Brazilian currency crisis of January 1999. This suggests that the breakdown of the Brazilian managed exchange rate system was due to the deterioration of the fundamentals of the economy.Currency crisis; self-fulfilling speculation; multiple equilibria; Brazilian exchange rate system.

Macro factors and the term structure of interest rates.

This paper presents an essentially affine model of the term structure of interest rates making use of macroeconomic factors and their long-run expectations. The model extends the approach pioneered by Kozicki and Tinsley (2001) by modeling consistently long-run inflation expectations simultaneously with the term structure. This model thus avoids the standard pre-filtering of long-run expectations, as proposed by Kozicki and Tinsley (2001). Application to the U.S. economy shows the importance of long-run inflation expectations in the modeling of long-term bonds. The paper also provides a macroeconomic interpretation for the factors found in a latent factor model of the term structure. More specifically, we find that the standard “level” factor is highly correlated to long-run inflation expectations, the “slope”' factor captures temporary business cycle conditions, while the “curvature” factor represents a clear independent monetary policy factor.

Macro Factors and the Term Structure of Interest Rates

This paper presents an essentially affine model of the term structure of interest rates making use of macroeconomic factors and their long-run expectations. The model extends the approach pioneered by Kozicki and Tinsley (2001) by modelling consistently long-run inflation expectations simultaneously with the term structure. This model thus avoids the standard pre-filtering of long-run expectations, as proposed by Kozicki and Tinsley (2001). Application to the U.S. economy shows the importance of long-run inflation expectations in the modelling of long-term bonds. The paper also provides a macroeconomic interpretation for the factors found in a latent factor model of the term structure. More specifically, we find that the standard "level" factor is highly correlated to long-run inflation expectations, the "slope" factor captures temporary business cycle conditions, while the "curvature" factor represents a clear independent monetary policy factor.essentially affine term structure model, macroeconomic factors, long-run market expectations, monetary policy rule

Multiple equilibria and the credibility of the Brazilian crawling peg 1995-1998.

Credibility; Equilibrium;

Macro Factors and the Term Structure of Interest Rates

This paper presents an essentially affine model of the term structure of interest rates making use of macroeconomic factors and their long-run expectations. The model extends the approach pioneered by Kozicki and Tinsley (2001) by modeling consistently long-run inflation expectations simultaneously with the term structure. This model thus avoids the standard pre-filtering of long-run expectations, as proposed by Kozicki and Tinsley (2001). Application to the U.S. economy shows the importance of long-run inflation expectations in the modeling of long-term bonds. The paper also provides a macroeconomic interpretation for the factors found in a latent factor model of the term structure. More specifically, we find that the standard “level” factor is highly correlated to long-run inflation expectations, the “slope”' factor captures temporary business cycle conditions, while the “curvature” factor represents a clear independent monetary policy factor

Filtering Long-Run Inflation Expectations with a Structural Macro Model of the Yield Curve

This paper proposes a methodolgy to estimate structural macroeconomic models including non-stationary steady state dynamics. Using a transitory-permanent decomposition of the Euler equations, the method first solves for the transitory dynamics and subsequently provides the solution for the full model by substituting back in the steady state dynamics. The method is applied to models linking the macroeconomic dynamics to the term structure of interest rates. We find that non-stationary variables play a crucial role in this respect. More specifically, long-run inflation expectations, estimated on the macroeconomic variables, turn out to be extremely important in the determination of the term structureStructural model, New-Keynesian model, filtering procedure, essentially affine term structure model, time-varying inflation expectations

A New-Keynesian model of the yield curve with learning dynamics: A Bayesian evaluation

We estimate a New-Keynesian macro-finance model of the yield curve incorporating learning by private agents with respect to the long-run expectation of inflation and the equilibrium real interest rate. A preliminary analysis shows that some liquidity premia, expressed as some degree of mispricing relative to no-arbitrage restrictions, and time variation in the prices of risk are important features of the data. These features are, therefore, included in our learning model. The model is estimated on U.S. data using Bayesian techniques. The learning model succeeds in explaining the yield curve movements in terms of macroeconomic shocks. The results also show that the introduction of a learning dynamics is not sufficient to explain the rejection of the extended expectations hypothesis. The learning mechanism, however, reveals some interesting points. We observe an important difference between the estimated inflation target of the central bank and the perceived long-run inflation expectation of private agents, implying the latter were weakly anchored. This is especially the case for the period from mid-1970s to mid-1990s. The learning model also allows a new interpretation of the standard level, slope, and curvature factors based on macroeconomic variables. In line with standard macro-finance models, the slope and curvature factors are mainly driven by exogenous monetary policy shocks. Most of the variation in the level factor, however, is due to shocks to the output-neutral real rate, in contrast to the mentioned literature which attributes most of its variation to long-run inflation expectations

Macro factors and the Term Structure of Interest Rates

This paper presents an essentially affine model of the term structure of interest rates making use of macroeconomic factors and their long-run expectations. The model extends the approach pioneered by Kozicki and Tinsley (2001) by modeling consistently long-run inflation expectations simultaneously with the term structure. This model thus avoids the standard pre-filtering of long-run expectations, as proposed by Kozicki and Tinsley (2001). Application to the U.S. economy shows the importance of long-run inflation expectations in the modelling of long-term bonds. The paper also provides a macroeconomic interpretation for the factors found in a latent factor model of the term structure. More specifically, we find that the standard "level" factor is highly correlated to long-run inflation expectations, the "slope" factor captures temporary business cycle conditions, while the "curvature" factor represents a clear independent monetary policy factor.Essentially affine term structure model;long-run market expectations;macroeconomic factors;monetary policy rule

A New-Keynesian model of the yield curve with learning dynamics: A Bayesian evaluation

We estimate a New-Keynesian macro-finance model of the yield curve incorporating learning by private agents with respect to the long-run expectation of inflation and the equilibrium real interest rate. A preliminary analysis shows that some liquidity premia, expressed as some degree of mispricing relative to no-arbitrage restrictions, and time variation in the prices of risk are important features of the data. These features are, therefore, included in our learning model. The model is estimated on U.S. data using Bayesian techniques. The learning model succeeds in explaining the yield curve movements in terms of macroeconomic shocks. The results also show that the introduction of a learning dynamics is not sufficient to explain the rejection of the extended expectations hypothesis. The learning mechanism, however, reveals some interesting points. We observe an important difference between the estimated inflation target of the central bank and the perceived long-run inflation expectation of private agents, implying the latter were weakly anchored. This is especially the case for the period from mid-1970s to mid-1990s. The learning model also allows a new interpretation of the standard level, slope, and curvature factors based on macroeconomic variables. In line with standard macro-finance models, the slope and curvature factors are mainly driven by exogenous monetary policy shocks. Most of the variation in the level factor, however, is due to shocks to the output-neutral real rate, in contrast to the mentioned literature which attributes most of its variation to long-run inflation expectations.New-Keynesian model; Affine yield curve model; Learning; Bayesian estimation