The decline in the predictive power of the US term spread: A structural interpretation

Joe Morell

Journal of Macroeconomics, 2018, vol. 55, issue C, 314-331

Abstract: Numerous studies have found the term spread to be a significant predictor of future real output growth. However, in the case of the US, the term spread’s predictive power has diminished from the mid-1980s till present. This paper provides new evidence to the debate on why the term spread leads output growth. We do this by structurally accounting for the decline in the predictive power of the US term spread. Our findings indicate that it is changes to the composition of shocks hitting the US economy which has caused the term spread, through the endogenous monetary policy response, to be a less reliable indicator of future output growth in recent decades.

Keywords: Term spread; Forecasting; Structural break (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E43 E47 E52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164070417303294
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jmacro:v:55:y:2018:i:c:p:314-331

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2017.12.003

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Macroeconomics is currently edited by Douglas McMillin and Theodore Palivos

More articles in Journal of Macroeconomics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().