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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 137 No. 3 2020

The US Treasury floating rate note puzzle: Is there a premium for mark-to-market stability?

Matthias Fleckenstein1; Francis A. Longstaff2,3

1 University of Delaware · 2 University of California, Los Angeles · 3 National Bureau of Economic Research

Abstract

We find that Treasury floating rate notes (FRNs) trade at a significant premium relative to the prices of Treasury bills and notes. This premium is directly related to the near-constant nature of FRN prices and is correlated with measures reflecting investor demand for safe assets. Money market funds are often the primary investors in FRNs, and the FRN premium is related to flows into funds with fixed net asset values, but not to flows into funds with variable net asset values. These results provide strong evidence that the FRN premium represents a convenience yield for the mark-to-market stability feature of FRNs.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.04.006
Volume
137
Issue
3
Pages
637-658
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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