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The Behavior of Interest Rates

Eugene F. Fama

University of Chicago

Review of Financial Studies 2006

The evidence in Fama and Bliss (1987) that forward interest rates forecast future spot interest rates for horizons beyond a year repeats in the out-of-sample 1986--2004 period. But the inference that this forecast power is due to mean reversion of the spot rate toward a constant expected value no longer seems valid. Instead, the predictability of the spot rate captured by forward rates seems to be due to mean reversion toward a time-varying expected value that is subject to a sequence of apparently permanent shocks that are on balance positive to mid-1981 and on balance negative thereafter. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

DOI
10.1093/rfs/hhj019
Volume
19 (2)
Pages
359-379
Language
en
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