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Journal of Finance Vol. 76 No. 1 2021

Learning From Disagreement in the U.S. Treasury Bond Market

Marco Giacoletti1; KRISTOFFER T. LAURSEN; Kenneth J. Singleton1,2,3,4

1 University of Southern California · 2 Marshall B. Ketchum University · 3 Association for Symbolic Logic · 4 Lars Research Institute

Abstract

We study risk premiums in the U.S. Treasury bond market from the perspective of a Bayesian econometrician who learns in real time from disagreement among investors about future bond yields. Notably, disagreement has substantial predictive power for yields, and 's risk premiums are less volatile than those in the analogous model without learning. 's forecasts are substantially more accurate than the consensus forecasts of market professionals, particularly following U.S. recessions. The predictive power of disagreement is distinct from the (much weaker) one of inflation and output growth. Rather, it appears to reflect uncertainty about future fiscal policy.

DOI
10.1111/jofi.12971
Volume
76
Issue
1
Pages
395-441
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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