Affine Macroeconomic Models of the Term Structure of Interest Rates: The US Treasury Market 1961-99

Abstract

This paper develops a macroeconomic model of the yield curve and uses this to explain the behaviour of the US Treasury market. Unlike previous macro-finance models which assume a homoscedastic error process, I develop a general affine model which allows volatility to be conditioned by interest rates and other macroeconomic variables. Despite the extensive use of stochastic volatility models in mainstream finance papers and the overwhelming evidence of heteroscedasticity in macroeconomic and asset price data this is the first macro-finance model of the bond market with this feature. My preferred empirical specification uses a single conditioning factor and is thus the macro-finance analogue of the EA1 (N) specification of the mainstream finance literature. This model performs well in encompassing tests that lead to a decisive rejection of the standard EA0(N) macro-finance specification. The resulting specification provides a flexible 10-factor explanation of the behaviour of the US yield curve, keying it in to the behaviour of the macroeconomy.