"Peso Problem" Explanations for Term Structure Anomalies

65 Pages Posted: 1 Jul 2000 Last revised: 26 Oct 2022

See all articles by Geert Bekaert

Geert Bekaert

Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Finance

Robert J. Hodrick

Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

David A. Marshall

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; University of Chicago - Booth School of Business

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: August 1997

Abstract

We examine the empirical evidence on the expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rates in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany using the Campbell-Shiller (1991) regressions and a vector-autoregressive" methodology. We argue that anomalies in the U.S. term structure, documented by Campbell and Shiller (1991), may be due to a generalized peso problem in which a high-interest rate regime occurred less frequently in the sample of U.S. data than was rationally anticipated. We formalize this idea as a regime-switching model of short-term interest rates estimated with data" from seven countries. Technically, this model extends recent research on regime-switching models with state-dependent transitions to a cross-sectional setting. Use of the small sample distributions generated by the regime-switching model for inference considerably weakens the evidence against the expectations hypothesis, but it remains somewhat implausible that our data-generating process produced the U.S. data. However, a model that combines moderate time-variation in term premiums with peso-problem effects is largely consistent with term structure data from the U.S., U.K., and Germany.

Suggested Citation

Bekaert, Geert and Hodrick, Robert J. and Marshall, David Aaron, "Peso Problem" Explanations for Term Structure Anomalies (August 1997). NBER Working Paper No. w6147, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=225910

Geert Bekaert (Contact Author)

Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Finance ( email )

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Robert J. Hodrick

Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Finance ( email )

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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David Aaron Marshall

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University of Chicago - Booth School of Business ( email )

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